Knock Three Times
by Jellyneau
Summary: Two perfect strangers wake to find themselves being held in adjacent prison cells with no memories of who they are or how they got there. It isn't until they are faced with agonizing trials that push the limits of self-sacrifice to new horrific heights, that they realize just what they're facing and how much they will need to trust each other in order to survive. (Ten/Rose)
1. Chapter 1

This fic began innocently enough with this rather happy prompt from .com on Tumblr;

Writing Prompt #558: Knock Three Times ...

Write a romance story about two people who live in abutting apartments and are madly in love with each other, but have never actually met each other face-to-face.

As you will soon discover, my sad, sick and frankly, EVIL mind morphed this innocent prompt and it became the story you're about to read. Mwahahaha!

In addition to the entire story prompt, I decided it would be fun to work in a sentence prompt for each chapter as well, just to keep the creative juices flowing! So this is the sentence prompt for chapter 1 and it's from

Chapter prompt: "I've got no ideas about anything. I was hoping you did."

Thanks for checking out the story... enjoy!

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 1: The Cell<strong>

She was torn from sleep by her body's insistence that she wretch, and before her mind even came to full consciousness, she was emptying the contents of her stomach on the surface she was lying on. Coughing up the vestiges of whatever she'd eaten last, she slowly sat, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. The next thing she did, though, was a mistake. She opened her eyes.

Blades immediately pierced through her optic nerves making her cry out. Hands flying to cover her face, she curled into a tight ball against the onslaught of pain, making sure to keep her eyes tightly shut. Whatever it was in the air, it stung the surface of her eyes with such ferocity that she was sure someone had thrown acid in them. Her lungs seemed to be doing alright though, so she didn't feel she needed to chance moving just yet… at least until she could determine where she was and if it was even safe to move. She managed to lie still while the pain in her eyes began to dissipate, but inside there was no question that she was panicking. Where the hell was she? Casting her thoughts back, she tried to remember what she'd been doing before… well, before now. Groping about in her mind, she came out blank. There was nothing. She had… no memory… no memor_ies_!

If she wasn't panicked before, she certainly was completely overwhelmed now. Why couldn't she remember anything? For God's sake… she… she must have a… a family? Friends? Frantically trying to make herself recall any other person in her life, she found herself drawing a blank.

Tears stung her eyes under her lids, reminding her suddenly of the incredible pain she'd just endured. Not wanting to bring on anything like that again, she forced herself to try to calm down. Taking a number of steadying, deep breaths she managed to slow her racing heart a bit and pull back the threatening tears.

Right. Think. Reason. She couldn't remember anything about her life. Nothing. There were no memories of people or specific places, though she knew _of_ them. She knew she should have some… she just couldn't actually think of them. Well, at least she knew that much. She was _supposed_ to have memories, she just… didn't. Right. Was there anything she _did_ remember?

She tried to do a sort of mental inventory. What was her favourite colour? No idea. Okay. How about… pets. Did she have any pets? Nope. No clue. How tall was she? Did she know at least that much? Trying to cast her mind back to find the missing information, she couldn't. It just wasn't there. She could tell it was _supposed to be_... but it just wasn't.

She wanted to cry, but fought the impulse. The burning in her eyes had now completely subsided but she wasn't willing to chance another peep at her environment just yet. After the first time, she wasn't sure she ever wanted to open her eyes again.

But where was she? Well, if she couldn't open her eyes yet, she could try to figure out as much as possible using her other senses. Taking a tentative breath through her nose she tried to discern any particular smells. Other than the putrid smell of her sick somewhere off to her right, she thought she could smell an antiseptic of some kind. Other than that, nothing else stood out.

Alright… how about sounds? Focusing her attention on any auditory information coming in, she tried to take an inventory. From somewhere above her she could make out the buzzing of something electrical… possibly a fan? In the distance she thought she may have heard the 'clang' of a metal door being shut. No other noises presented themselves. Was she in some sort of prison? A hospital? She was lying on a cool, hard surface. Smooth. A floor? An examination table maybe?

Deciding she should maybe try once more to open her eyes, she braced herself. Covering her eyes with her hands just in case it was very bright or there really was some sort of chemical irritant in the air, she slowly cracked her lids open. A slight sting pricked at the moist surface of her corneas, and she held her breath, waiting for more. Surprisedly, the pain didn't progress any further. Taking a chance, she slid open her eyes a bit more. The sting didn't get worse. In fact, it seemed to disappear. Sighing deeply in relief, she kept her hands in front of her eyes for a few more moments, now afraid to see beyond the safety of the insides of her palms.

God. No point in waiting. No point except continued denial of whatever situation she was in for another few moments. Slowly peeling her hands back from in front of her face, she was met with very little worth looking at.

The room she was in was a deep green colour… every surface. The floor, ceiling, walls. A single light shone brightly from a bulb sunk into the high ceiling, illuminating the small space. The entire place was probably only 12 feet by 12 feet. There were no windows, but there was a small grate on the bottom of one of the side walls, also painted green. There was a hole in the floor against the opposite wall and a large door was set into the wall in front of her. Large being the operative word. It looked to be at least twelve feet high.

Fear spiked in her again. Surely this was some sort of prison. A hospital would at least have some sort of bed, wouldn't it? Maybe a sink and a mirror?

Then it occurred to her. She didn't even know what she looked like. Taking stock, she tried to analyze herself. She was female… she'd already figured out _that much_. Looking down, she took in her appearance as far as she could see. Her skin was white… quite pale. She appeared to be sort of on the thin side and confirmed it by running her hands along her sides to feel the slight bumps of her ribs. She was wearing… sort of… scrubs. Funny how she could remember what things were called, but she had no recollection where she'd learned the word itself. Continuing her evaluation, she held her hands out in front of her. Trimmed nails. Bit of pink polish. She must've done them quite recently, because there were only a few chips in the otherwise shiny surfaces. She stretched her legs out in front of her. She wasn't wearing any shoes and her feet looked to be in good shape. Polish on the toes… in better shape than the coating on her fingernails. She probably wore shoes rather than sandals most of the time, then, she reasoned. At least she seemed to be well groomed.

Realizing she should probably be concerning herself more with finding out _where_ she was than _who_ she was, she decided to chance standing. Getting shakily to her feet, she traversed the room to stand at the door. There was no handle she could see, so she tried to push her fingers into the narrow well between the door and the frame. Her fingers were small enough, but the door didn't give at all with her attempts to pull at it. She played her fingertips around as much of the door as she could reach, but there didn't seem to be any place that offered movement.

Sighing, she finally backed away. Maybe she should call out? She was actually terrified to do so… after all, whoever put her here clearly wanted to keep her here… but she'd needed answers and she wasn't going to get them sitting by herself in a cell. Steeling herself, she took a breath in. She was about to shout for someone to come when she heard the clank of metal against tile and the rustle of feet in the hall outside the door.

"Hello?!" she called through the door.

The noises stopped outside the door and she was sure someone was about to open it.

Backing up, she held her breath and waited.

The sound of a key in a lock and more clanging and rustling issued from beyond the door. Her hands were held tightly at her sides, her palms sweaty with nerves. She was going to see who had imprisoned her. She only hoped that imprisonment was the worst they had planned for her.

A moment later, a door slammed, the sound reverberating through the wall of her cell. Wait. They'd opened a closed a different door. "Oi!" she shouted, moving back to the door, "Open up!"

Outside she could hear muffled footsteps retreating, but that was all. "Come back! Let me out of here!" Pressing her ear to the door she anxiously listened. Silence again. "HEY!" she tried once more, giving the door a solid bang with her fist as she shouted.

Nothing. "Bloody hell!" she cursed, huffing with frustration. What was the point of this? If she was being held for some reason, surely they'd tell her why, or at least… move this along somehow. Not that she particularly _wanted_ this to move along, but at least she might gain some information if it did.

From somewhere a muffled moan found her ears and she stopped moving. Frozen to the spot, she concentrated on listening for a moment. Then the sound came again. It was filtering through the wall on her right. Moving quickly, she pressed her ear against it. A moment later, the thick sound of retching reached her through the barrier she was listening through. Someone else was throwing up like she had.

A thrill of hope went through her. Maybe this other person knew where they were? Maybe… maybe it was someone who knew her and could tell her who she was!

"Hello?" she said into the wall. "Can you hear me?"

A yelp of pain followed by loud groans played through the wall… but they seemed to be louder…

Aha! The grating near the floor. It must lead to the other room. Kneeling down, she pressed her face to the grate and called into it. "Hello? Are you okay?"

"I… I can't… Gods!"

It was a man's voice, and she knew immediately what the problem was. "Keep your eyes closed," she called through the slatted metal covering. "Keep them closed for a while yet," she instructed.

"What… where am I?" she heard the man ask. Trying to peer through the mesh of the grating in hopes of seeing… well, _anything_... she was disappointed to find there was no direct view of the man's room. Off to the left she could see light filtering into the narrow space between the walls. That must be where the grating in his room was situated.

"You're…" she trailed off. She sure as hell didn't know. "I'm not sure. I just woke up here," she offered lamely.

There was silence from his side of the wall for a few more moments before he grunted. "You… uh… I don't suppose you have any idea who I am, do you?" the man asked.

Her heart sunk. She'd been counting on this man to have some answers, not more questions. Sighing, she admitted, "I've got no ideas about anything. I was hoping you did. I'm sorry I can't help you… I don't even know who _I_ am."

"Oh," he replied a bit dejectedly. "Can I… do you reckon I could maybe open my eyes now?" he asked.

"Um… I covered my eyes with my hands when I did it. Sort of seemed to help a bit maybe. Just… open them just a bit at first," she advised feeling badly for the poor bloke. She knew how it felt… the fear that maybe daggers might once again dig into your skull.

A moment later, she thought she heard a loud sigh of relief. "Right. Well… this isn't quite what I was expecting," the man said, obviously now seeing his surroundings.

Whoever this was, he certainly seemed to be staying calm about all this. "What colour is your cell?" she asked after a moment, not exactly sure why this was the question that came to mind.

"Er… blue. A deep blue colour. You?" he asked, maybe in an effort to keep conversation going.

"Green. It's all green. Everything," she elaborated, once again looking around her empty cell. "I, uh… I tried prying the door open, but I didn't have any luck, obviously," she offered, for some reason needing him to know she hadn't just been sitting here picking her arse since she woke. "I tried to talk to them when they brought you in, but they didn't answer," she shared.

"There's more than one?" he asked, now obviously having moved closer to the grate in his room. His voice was clearer now and louder.

"Oh… I'm not sure. I just assumed, I suppose," she acknowledged.

"Right. Weeellll…" he said, his voice sounding a bit more far away now. "Oh, hello! What do we have here?" she heard him say in a decidedly interested voice.

"What? What is it?" she asked, her own interest now piqued.

"Well look at you! A pyronic rhemal recorder! Haven't seen one of these in… well… I'm not sure exactly _when_ I last saw one of these, actually…" his voice trailed off.

"A what?" she asked, now worried. It sounded like something she should be worried about.

"It's a monitor. Somebody's watching. I assume you have one in your cell as well," he posited.

Quickly darting her eyes up, she looked around the outline of the ceiling. "I don't see…" she said before suddenly noticing a small round protrusion in the corner near the top of the wall. There it was. "Wait… I see it," she advised him.

"Yup. Someone's keeping an eye on us. Not an ear, it seems, though. No audio recorder on these old things," he said, his voice dropping a bit as he neared the grating again.

Then, remembering a possibly important bit of information she'd gathered, she shared, "These, er… beings that are holding us… they're tall. I mean… really tall, I think, judging by the height of the door," she offered before suddenly reconsidering, "Or… maybe I'm just really short?" Now that she thought of it, she realized she really didn't have anyone else to compare to.

"Well," he said, sounding thoughtful, "I imagine they're probably quite tall, if the size of the door in my room is anything to go by compared to my size," he suggested. "How tall are you compare to the door?" he asked.

"I'm, um… less than half as tall," she answered.

"Okay. I'm…" he trailed off for a few moments before finishing, "... I'm a bit taller than half the height of the door," he shared, obviously further away now - probably standing by the door itself.

Well at least they knew _something_ about themselves and each other now. The information hardly seemed particularly important at this point, but it was _something_ at least.

Deciding _someone_ had to talk about it, she brought up the subject, "What do you remember about your life? Anything?" she asked, quite sure that she knew the answer.

There was silence for a few moments before she heard, "No… I can't remember anything. I'm… I think I _should_ remember things. Like… there are people. People I should remember. I just… can't. I can't remember how I got here… nothing. You?" he asked, sounding a bit hopeful.

"No, me neither," she admitted. "I tried to remember anything about myself, but I just come up blank. Odd though… I can remember how to talk and everything… just…. I can't remember anything about myself or my past," she shared.

"Right," he said, obviously considering what she'd said. "Different kinds of memory, that's why," he said, matter-of-factly. "Different neural pathways for personal history and self-identification than for basic knowledge and procedural learning," he shared.

"Oh," she said lamely, wishing she had more to contribute than that.

Suddenly, a blaring buzzer began pulsing from all around her in her cell. "What's that?" the man asked from his side of the wall.

Fear spiked in her making adrenaline course through her veins. "I… I don't know," she said, frantically looking around for anything that might be a reason for the noise.

Beneath her, the floor covering the cell became illuminated with a bright blue light and with it came a sudden incredibly painful jolt that coursed up from every part of her body that was in contact with the ground.

A scream parted her lips and she jumped in reaction, skittering across the cell to try to find a place to be that didn't produce the same pain. In the corner she spotted a square of flooring that wasn't illuminated and jumped for it. Her feet hit the dark square and she was desperately relieved to find it wasn't similarly electrified.

Then, suddenly, the lights in the floor went out and the blaring noise stopped.

"What is it! What happened?!" she heard the man shout through the grating.

Drawing ragged breaths in and eying the floor warily she said, "I… the floor… it… it..."

A resounding buzzer sound then blared once again, but this time it wasn't coming from inside her cell. "Oh shit," she heard the man's tenor voice cuss before he too began crying out in pain.

"NO!" she shouted, running to the wall blocking her from him. "STOP THIS!" she shouted up to the ceiling. The blaring alarm continued for another moment but then stopped just as it had for her.

"Are you okay?" she shouted through the wall.

It took a few seconds, but his voice finally drifted through the grating. "I'm okay," she heard him pant. "The floor lit up and some sort of current passed through it," he informed her. "I found a spot that wasn't lit up and then it stopped," he added.

"The same happened to me," she shared as renewed fear trickled through her. "Why are they doing this?" she asked, doing her best to keep from panicking even more.

"I don't know," he replied, his voice low.

Again, a loud klaxon issued and this time it was coming from inside her room again. "Fuck!" she cursed, unsure exactly what to do. Deciding to get back to the spot that wasn't illuminated before… it had been the only safe place in the cell last time… she quickly darted for it and braced herself.

Again, the floor lit up in blue light, including the spot she was standing on. Yelping in pain as a jolt passed up into her through the soles of her feet, she darted her eyes around frantically looking for a spot that wasn't lit. Finding it in the other corner of the room, she dashed for it, trying to contact the ground with as little skin as possible as she did so. Landing in the middle of it, she gasped with relief. It was benign, just as the dark spot had been last time.

"Are you alright?" the man asked, his worried voice drifting through the wall.

Before she could answer, the same loud buzzer clanged in his room. "It's in a different spot now!" she warned him through the din. "Try… try the other corner of the room farthest away from the door," she shouted, dearly hoping she was right about this.

A moment later the noise ceased. "Did it… are you okay?" she said through the grating.

"Yeah… it worked. Thank-you," he said, obviously grateful for the warning.

Again, alarms blared in her room. She just about sobbed. Now where? She looked about the room urgently trying to guess where the next safe spot might be. Deciding on a different corner of the room, she darted to it and stood, hands clenched and jaw tight in an attempt to prepare.

The floor lit up around the room but not under her. Moments later the noise ended and the floor darkened. "Uh… hey… move to the corner closest to the door… it was the safe spot in here," she directed the man with a shout.

"Right," she heard before the alarms sounded in the adjacent room. Biting her lip, she waited, hoping she'd not hear a cry of pain. She didn't.

Once again, the noise stopped and silence fell. "Thank-you," she heard from the other side of the wall.

"S'alright," she answered before the sequence began again. Quickly moving to the last unused corner, she waited, once again hoping she'd made the correct guess.

Again, the ground lit up around her but she was spared the shock. Once again instructing her 'cellmate', for lack of a better title, she told him where she assumed the next safe spot would be for him. He'd already guessed as much, though, and when the alarms went off, he too avoided the intended punishment.

Neither of them moved or said anything for a minute, both waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was then the lighting above her dimmed to about half of what it had been. Looking around anxiously, she waited for the next bad thing to happen. "Did your lights just dim?" she heard the man ask.

"Yeah. Maybe… maybe that's it for now?" she posited hopefully.

"Yeah. Maybe," he said, not sounding convinced. Then, she wasn't sure, but she thought he might have said, "Or this could just be the beginning."


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the wonderful comments and reads on the first chapter! Very appreciated! The prompt I used for this chapter was...

Chapter prompt: "I've been trying not to get emotional- it isn't really working, is it?"

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 2: Exemption<strong>

They both stayed silent for a minute waiting for the next nasty development, but when nothing happened the man decided he'd better quickly explore the room to try to get himself and his new 'flatmate' out of here as soon as possible. He wasn't going to continue experiencing such unpleasantness from their hosts if he could help it and he was sure the young sounding woman in the next cell wasn't too excited about the prospect either.

Walking around the perimeter surveying the walls for any seams or cracks that might indicate a way out, he stayed alert in case their captors decided they needed more punishment. Surveying each wall and line as he made his way around the room, his hope started to wane. It wasn't looking good so far. Looking up as he examined the smooth surface of the front wall, though, he _did_ spy something interesting running along the top of the wall above the door.

A minute later three taps issued from his neighbour's side of the wall. "You still there?" she asked, her voice soft.

A little chuckle escaped him. He wished he wasn't. "I wish I could say I was outside your door ready to let you out, but sadly, I'm still here," he answered, now on his tiptoes in an effort to eye the oddity in the wall a bit more closely. "I was just trying to find any possible cracks along the seams of the walls. Sometimes a trap door of sorts can be housed quite inconspicuously in these sorts of places," he shared. "Not sure how I know that, exactly," he reflected, "but I do. Anyhow, no luck with that. There isn't going to be any easy escape that way, I'm afraid," he said glumly, making his way back to sit by their adjoining wall.

"I'm more sorry to hear that than you could ever know," she shared.

"What I _did_ discover, though, is how they're dampening our memories. All along the top of the front wall there's a permeable membrane that they're filtering a neuronal inhibitor through," he shared, lowering his voice. "I didn't notice it until I got closer. Should've picked it up earlier, but… well, I think my olfactory sense is a bit scrambled, to be honest," he admitted, annoyed that whatever their captors had done had not only erased his memories, but had actually messed with his basic senses as well.

"Do you think we could…I don't know… stuff something against it? Maybe block some of it out?" he heard her ask.

Brilliant question. He liked how this woman thought. "Sadly, no. It's the full width of the wall. Even if we used all our clothes, we couldn't cover enough of it to make a difference," he shared. "Plus then we'd have the added discomfort of being starkers in a cold cell," he added practically. He shivered with the thought. The thin scraps they'd given them to wear were bad enough at blocking some of the chill radiating from the cool flooring. The idea of sitting bare arsed on the ground held very little appeal.

A moment later, the woman's attractive voice found his ears again. "I wonder if they're gonna feed us," she questioned aloud.

There really _was_ something viscerally attractive about her voice, he mused for a moment before giving himself a mental kick. This was hardly the time to be analyzing the voice quality of his cellmate. Gathering his thoughts to concentrate on replying with something appropriate he answered, "Well, I suppose if they do feed us we'd at least get a look at our captors," he reasoned. "At least we'd have some idea what we're up against," he said practically.

"Yeah," she replied, definitely not sounding too excited by the idea.

As if on cue, the woman suddenly whispered urgently through the grating, "Wait! Oh my God… there's someone outside my door."

"Stay back… don't approach them," he warned. The comment seemed pretty ridiculous… he was pretty sure she hadn't planned to run into their open arms, but it was all the advice he had worth giving at the moment.

It was disturbingly quiet for a full minute and fourteen seconds and it wasn't much longer than that before he was about to call for her.

Just then, though, he heard shuffling steps nearing his door. Standing quickly, he waited, squaring his shoulders and balling his hands into fists in preparation of meeting their captors. He didn't get that chance, however. At the bottom of his door, a slot less than a foot wide and half a foot tall appeared. Through it a simple tray with two bowls on it was pushed into the room. The hole disappeared as soon as the tray passed the threshold.

A shuffling sound continued down the hallway, seemingly stopping again a moment later. Must be feeding time at the zoo.

Approaching the tray warily, he peered into the bowls. One was filled with brownish balls about the size of the end of his thumb and the other was filled with a yellow liquid. If this was meant to be eaten… and he wasn't entirely sure it was… it was the least appetizing meal he could've imagined. Not that he had memory of what kind of meal he would normally define as especially appetizing, but was pretty sure it didn't look like _this_.

Sighing, he picked it up and returned to sit by the grating on the wall closest to her cell. Tentatively picking up one of the unappealing slightly bumpy little brown balls he licked it. Hmmm. "Looks like they're at least accommodating of our nutritional needs," he mused aloud. Taking a bite, he catalogued the dietary and chemical elements in the food as he chewed. "Uh huh," he confirmed, "...yup. Basic nutritional requirements. Missing a few key vitamins, but overall… actually," he paused for a moment, searching the contents of his mouth for vitamin L and coming up with nothing, "... this is a completely balanced diet for a _human_. I wonder if they think we're human?" he pondered, taking another bite.

After a short silence he heard, "We're not human?" she asked, sounding almost panicked at the idea. "Oh my God… I hadn't even considered I might be something else."

"Oh… uh, I thought… um… now that you mention it," he said thoughtfully, "I suppose we _could_ be human." He'd just assumed they were Gallifreyan… but then… there was no reason they would have to be. Given the size of the door, he'd had to concede that he could be one of any number of species. "I guess it just didn't occur to me that we might be human or even any other sort of bipedal species. The food they gave me is perfectly formulated for humans, though" he said, "so maybe that's what I am," he said, mulling that over. Then it occurred that there was one quick way to check. Pulling up his hands to cover both sides of his chest he sat still for a few moments. Under both palms he felt a heartbeat.

"So… what could we be then, if we're not human?" the woman asked lightly, possibly in an effort to sound calm.

"Well, from what I can tell I'm a Time Lord. Gallifreyan," he answered, deciding that's what he must be, given the number of hearts and…yup. There is was. His time sense. He could feel it running around and through him. Curious now, he asked, "Are you… how many hearts do you have?"

"Umm…" she said, pausing as she probably felt her chest, "… just one."

"What colour is your skin?"

"Oh, uh… my skin is sort of… pink. Or...beige, I guess."

"Right. How about toes? How many on each foot?" he asked. Pinkish skin meant she could be one of only a handful of bipedal, one hearted species. Six toes or less would decide it.

"Five," she answered. "Is… is that good?" she asked, obviously worried he was going to tell her that she was some bizarre new sort of species.

He smiled. "It's perfectly normal for a human," he confirmed.

"Oh… okay, good. I'm human then. I thought I might be," she said, obviously relieved. Then she added, "I… I think I've heard of Time Lords. I wish I could remember how I know about them," she added. "Are you, uh…" she paused, "... do you look human?" she finally asked.

Looking down at himself he considered the question. "Oh. Uh… I suppose I do," he answered, still chewing his last bite of nutrient ball. "Can't be 100% sure, mind. There's no mirror in here… but… hang on," he advised. Running his hands along his face and the sides of his head he catalogued and compared himself to his memory of a human template, "Two eyes… one nose… two ears… yup. Pretty human looking, I think." he declared. Then, feeling the top of his head a bizarre sort of glee filled him. "Oh! And I've got hair! Oh, that's brilliant! Wish I could see what colour it is. Hope its ginger. Gotta love a good head of ginger hair," he added seriously. "What colour's yours?" he asked before adding, "...if you have hair. I don't want to assume."

She laughed then, and the sound lit the room. "Yeah, I have hair. Um… hang on…" she said, pausing. "I'm… blonde," she informed him (and probably herself).

"Oh," he said, trying his hardest to recall if there was anyone he knew who might have blonde hair. Nope. Still nothing. Finally he gave up trying to remember and just said, "I think I like blondes. Can't be sure, of course, given that I have no memory of any particular blondes… but they certainly seem worth knowing, if you're any indication," he said, completely letting that last bit slip. "That is… you're obviously a good person. Saving me from the dermatide pulse flooring and all," he clarified quickly, mentally slapping himself for sounding so forward.

A small giggle met his ears, once again reminding him how much he liked the sound of her voice… especially when she laughed. "Well, I'm glad to hear I'm worth knowing," she replied happily. He marvelled for a moment at how this woman was actually truly distracting him from their less than ideal situation and a grin found his lips.

Realizing then that she hadn't sounded like she'd been chewing, he said, "You, uh… you should probably eat. Whatever happens, you'll need to keep your strength up, yeah?" he offered, trying not to sound like he was being bossy. He really wasn't trying to be… he just had a very bad feeling that their captors had more in store for them and she needed to keep her body as strong as possible if they were going to get out of here in one piece.

"Yeah, I suppose," she sighed.

It was silent for a couple of minutes while she was presumably eating the tasteless morsels their abductors had left them. He took that time to sample the slightly thick yellow liquid in the second bowl. It was a bit bland, but not the worst thing he'd ever tasted.

As they ate, he thought about what had happened earlier. This woman… a complete stranger… had helped him when she really had no reason to. It seemed she was kind as well as brave and he really ought to acknowledge it. Clearing his throat, he lowered his voice slightly. "Seriously, though… thanks for helping me earlier," he offered through the metal mesh. "You saved me some pain. I just…" he paused, remembering her pained cries, "I wish they'd have done it to me first so I could've warned _you_," he said honestly. And he meant it. She was only human, after all. Her pain receptors would be slightly more sensitive than his, making the brutal shocks that much worse for her than they had been for him.

"No worries, mate," she said. "Let's just hope it doesn't happen again soon. I'm not up for another round of 'avoid the light'," she added.

Unbidden, his hearts swelled slightly with her comment. She was brushing it off like it was something she did for people every other day… saving them from torture.

"So, uh… I hope we aren't here for much longer, but I should probably call you something other than 'Hey'. Maybe we should, I don't know… make up names until we remember our own?" she suggested.

"Oh… sure. Why not?" he agreed, acknowledging that it might be nice to have a name. "Okay… well, maybe I'm sort of a… 'Dick', or something," he suggested. With that he heard her laugh chime through the grating. "What?!" he said, feigning hurt. "Nothing wrong with a good Dick," he said as seriously as he could manage with a big shite eating grin on his face.

"Oi! Keep it clean!" she laughed again. "No… how about… Do… Dominic? Or David?"

"Nah. Too boring. How about… 'Dekker'?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Pardon?" she asked, as if she wasn't sure she'd heard him right.

"Dekker," he repeated. "Means 'Piercing'. In some cultures it means 'Roofer'. I'm not sure, but I imagine I'd make a rather piercing roofer," he suggested.

"Alright. Dekker it is," she chuckled. "And… I could be… hmmm," she trailed off, clearly thinking.

"How about… 'Rrrrrr… Rhododendron," he suggested but then immediately decided against it. "No. That's a terrible name. How about… 'Rhoda'? 'Rene'? Oh! How about 'Rowina'?" Rowina sounded like a perfect name for her. It meant 'Fair'... something she certainly was. In character, that is. It's not like he'd had a chance to actually _see_ if she was fair… either in complexion or with regard to her general beauty as a woman. Given the sound of her voice, though he'd already painted a pretty picture of her in his mind and he decided she was probably fair in both regards.

She was quiet for a moment, possibly considering his suggestions. "I think I like Rene better. I'll go with Rene," she concluded. It meant 'born again'. Certainly apt in this circumstance.

"Right. Rene it is," he agreed, echoing her earlier approval of his chosen title.

"Um… have you tried the yellow stuff yet?" she asked, possibly trying to work up the courage to try it herself.

"Yup. Not bad. Not sweet enough for my tastes," he admitted. "Lots of vitamin C, though. Your body will appreciate it. Drink up," he suggested.

"You seem to have quite a detailed inventory of the ingredients, Dekker. Did your meal come with a label?" she asked, sounding amused.

"Nope… just… it's what my tongue does, I guess," he answered, considering. "Funny… I just take it for granted. Like… having two hearts. It just… is."

"You have two hearts?" Rene asked, sounding amazed. Then she paused for a moment. "Wait a minute… I think I knew that. Yeah… I did! Hey - maybe I'm rememberin' things! That's a good sign, yeah?" she said enthusiastically.

He 'hmmm-ed' non-committally. He hated to burst her bubble of excitement, but sadly it probably wasn't so. "I don't think it's much of a sign, I'm afraid. 'Fact' memories shouldn't have been compromised much. Just memories tied up with our personal timelines and identity memories are affected. The stress you're under is just making it a bit harder to access the fact memories at the moment, that's all," he shared.

"Oh," she said, sounding truly disappointed.

Just then, the light above dimmed again, to the point where Dekker could barely see his hand before his face. "What is it? What's happening?" he heard Rene's alarmed voice say next door.

"I don't know," Dekker said, lowly. He wasn't sure what was going on, but chances were that any change in this environment wasn't good.

Sitting tense and still, they waited. Nothing happened.

"Maybe this is their way of telling us to sleep?" Rene suggested quietly after a couple of minutes.

"Maybe," he agreed. It maybe made sense. They'd been fed and now they were expected to rest. Well he had no intention of sleeping, that was for sure. As far as he was concerned, he planned not to sleep until he got out of this place.

They both fell silent for a while, and in the quiet Dekker considered their options. As far as he could tell, there weren't any hidden exits from this room and the door had yet to open, so he wasn't sure what was beyond it. Whatever it was, he was going to find out. It was their only route to freedom and it looked more and more like they were going to have to confront their captors directly if they were going to get out of here.

He had been sitting in the near dark for nearly ten minutes when he heard very faint sniffles through the grating between the rooms.

"Hey," he called softly, leaning in so he was even closer to the grating, wishing he could comfort Rene in person. He had wished before that they weren't being separated by this blasted wall, but right now his desire for it be gone tripled. "We'll get out of here," he vowed, desperately hoping he wasn't just making hollow promises.

"Thanks… I… I've been trying not to get emotional, but it isn't really working, is it?" Rene said, releasing a watery laugh.

"It's a completely normal reaction," he shared. "But I'm gonna figure out a way to get us out of here, yeah? I promise," he reassured her. Once again deciding he wouldn't rest until he found a way to save this brave woman, he settled in to lean against the wall, as if somehow his increased proximity might send her waves of comfort. He just wished he could offer her more.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The light above sprang to life in a sharp, nasty way, making Dekker squint his closed eyes. Suddenly, awareness crept into his sleeping mind, reminding him exactly where he was. Opening his eyes in alarm, he took in the room. Still blue and still empty, but now startlingly lit again from above.

From the other side of the wall he heard Rene groan. "You awake?" he whispered through the grating.

"Barely," she admitted. "Seems they want us awake for something," she posited.

"Yeah. Not sure I want to know what," he shared.

Just then, the blare of the buzzer… the one that followed him into his nightmares last night... pierced his ears.

"Bloody hell," he heard Rene curse through the wall. Flying to his feet, she studied the flooring warily. Saying he had been afraid this would happen was rather an understatement. Staring at the dark floor, he waited.

Nothing. Nothing was happening. "Rene? Is something happening over there?" he asked, his voice emanating anxiety.

Suddenly the floor below him lit up a light blue like it did yesterday sending waves of pain through him. A yelp of pain escaped him. Searching the floor of his cell he was unable to find any part of it that wasn't lit. There was no escaping the pain this time. "Dekker?!" he heard her shout toward him. He moaned in pain despite his desire to answer her.

Even if he'd wanted to, he'd not have had the chance to gather words to respond, because just then the lights covering the floor of his cell shifted from light to darker blue. Unbidden, his cries picked up in intensity as the strength of the dermatide pulse increased, making him double over. Clutching his stomach, trying to somehow control the waves of pain pushing through him, he clenched his jaw shut to try to control his screams. It was all completely useless however, as that's when all hell literally broke loose inside him. Dekker's wails doubled in strength once again, as the agonizing pain tripled. The floor beneath him was now a deep purple, heralding the darkness that he was sure would swallow him if the pain got any worse.

In the cell beside his, then a scream tore from Rene's throat, permeating the nearly overwhelming sound of blood rushing through his ears. The pulse of agony that was piercing through him finally stopped, only to be replaced by Rene's cries of anguish.

Then, as suddenly as Rene's screams started, they stopped. Trying to gather his breath to call out for her he heard. "Dekker?!"

"Rene? Are you alright?!" he managed to shout back.

"I'm okay… but you… what happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he assured her, "I'll be alright. The whole floor lit up this time. No black spot anywhere. You too?" he asked worriedly.

"Uh… no. Was different in here," she shared. "I… I heard you screaming, and then, well… this one square lit a couple feet from me. Then it changed colours and you started screaming. I didn't know what to do… you were in so much pain," she said, trailing off.

"Rene… you jumped on it? For me?" he said, his hearts pounding as he began to put two and two together.

"Well… yeah, I suppose. You would've done the same for me," she said. "Anyway… it worked, didn't it?" she said in support of her choice.

"Don't ever do that again, Rene. Do you hear me?" he demanded, true fear for her filling him. "You… you don't know what could've happened to you. What if the voltage had been even higher than yesterday?" he said, unable to stop some of the worry and anger he felt from seeping into his voice.

"Oi… listen here, mister," she said, her ire clearly now raised. "I don't know who you think you are, but I make my own decisions, thanks."

Klaxons sounded again interrupting her rant and Dekker heard Rene swear on the other side of the wall. He gritted his teeth in anticipation of more pain hoping that this time she'd maybe do as he'd asked and _not_ help him. She didn't sound much like the easily persuaded kind, however, so Dekker held out little hope.

Then, before him a square lit up in piercing white. What the…

The floor shifted then from white to light blue and with it, Rene's startled cry could be heard through the wall. Oh fuck. This was what she'd been talking about!

He was about to step on it when her cries increased in intensity, making him shudder. Taking no more time, Dekker jumped with both feet onto the lit square before him. Inside, his nerves lit up with fire, tearing a scream from him loud enough to break glass.

"Dekker!" he heard Rene shout from her cell. He couldn't answer, though. Pain still ripped at his cells making anything but agonized cries impossible. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped and he slouched to the ground, working to pull in breaths.

"Dekker! Are you alright?!" she shouted through the wall.

"Yeah… I'm… I'm okay," he answered, panting.

"Did the floor light up in front of you? Changing colours?" she asked, worry filling her voice.

"Yeah," he answered. He couldn't very well lie.

Once again, another buzzer clanged around them. "Dekker…" he heard her say, "...it's happening again…" she warned pointlessly.

"Rene," he barked severely, "Don't step on it. DON'T!" he ordered. He _had_ to get through to her. If they were shocking her with even the half the strength they were to administering to him, she was putting herself in more danger than she knew.

"But…" he heard her begin to protest before the floor below him lit up a pale blue, sending his body into painful convulsions.

"STOP THIS!" he heard Rene scream. "STOP!"

The light once again shifted beneath him to the deeper blue, causing wave upon wave of agony to pulse through his body. He may have been screaming now, but he couldn't tell. Burning agony drilled through his feet to distribute torturing pain through every nerve ending on its way up to his scalp. Somewhere in the distance he registered the fact that Rene had stopped shouting at their captors. A moment later, the agony ended and he dropped to the ground with a tortured moan. Screams could be heard from beyond their shared wall, and Dekker knew instantly what Rene had done. "NO!" he shouted fruitlessly, knowing nothing he said would make a difference.

Her cries lasted for what felt like an eternity before they finally died off. "Rene! Are you okay?" he yelled. "Rene!"

"I'm… I'm okay. I'm alright," she choked out.

Frustration born of fear flew through him on hearing her voice. "You can't do that again, Rene. Do you hear me?!" he insisted, wishing for a moment that he could shake some sense into her.

Despite her obvious pain, her own frustrated voice rose to meet his. "Listen… I can't just stand there knowing you're in pain when I know there's something I can do about it!" she shot back. "And why is it okay for you do it for me, but I can't do it for you?! How dare you be angry with me for needing to help you!"

Pursing his lips into a thin line, he gathered his mounting frustration and squashed it down. Arguing with her at the moment wasn't helping. After taking a minute to collect himself he said evenly, "I think I know what they're doing," he said, his voice tight. "Come closer to the grating," he suggested.

He thought he heard her coming closer then. "What?" Her voice still held her own frustration, but she was clearly attempting to manage it as he had.

"They're experimenting. On us. They're trying to see if we can solve their puzzles… if we're intelligent enough to rise to the occasion if the need arises," he explained quietly. "They must have just encountered humans and are trying to work out how intelligent they are. I'm assuming they think I'm human as well, though I can't be sure of that," he added.

"Fantastic," she whispered back.

Once again, the piercing buzzer stabbed his eardrums. It was her turn and he'd be damned if he'd let her suffer. Standing quickly, the light already lit before him swiftly turned a light blue once again. He could tell Rene was attempting to hold back a whimper, but the pain had gotten the best of her and an agonized moan escaped her.

Wasting no time, Dekker jumped onto the square. A strangled yell tore from him with the now familiar, but no less painful, assault. Once again, it seemed to go on for eternity before it finally abated and left him groaning and doubled over.

"Dekker?!" he heard Rene shout.

"I'm okay," he squeaked before she had a chance to ask.

There was less than a second before the claxons once again sounded. "NO!" he heard Rene shout in frustration.

His turn. Bracing himself, he waited for the initial pulse of pain to shoot through him. It didn't disappoint. The worst part was knowing that in moments it was going to get so much worse. Biting his lip, he held back any whimper that was trying to escape him. If he could convince Rene he wasn't suffering much, maybe she'd stop trying to help him. Again, though, the pain intensified with the darkening of the light in the floor and a strangled moan cut through his lips despite his determined efforts not alert her to his agony.

His efforts were in vain, however, which became obvious when his torture ended and Rene's agonized cries pounded and echoed through their cells. At the end of it, her whimpers replaced the horrid cries their captors had been pulling from her. Anger darted through him on hearing it. It was absolute hatred for the fucking pitiless cretins that pounded through his veins, but he couldn't help be angry with Rene as well. For God's sake! What the hell was she thinking?! She was just a bloody human and there was only so much her frail body would be able to take! "Damn it, Rene!" Dekker shouted. "DON'T. FUCKING. HELP ME!"

The whimpers stopped immediately, to be replaced by an angry growl. "I'll do as I bloody please!" she shouted back. "I won't let you suffer if I can stop it. I won't!" she reiterated.

The alarms blared once again, and Dekker cursed soundly. When were these fucking creatures going to stop?! A square lit up before him on the ground. Damn it! Goddamn, fucking, soul suckers! Standing defiantly, he stood before the brightly lit square and steeled himself. He wasn't going to wait this time. Even a small shock might end her, for all he knew, if these bastards hadn't already killed her. No. He couldn't believe that was so. Closing his eyes, he stepped determinedly onto the white square.

Once again, pain was there to thank him for his efforts to save his new friend from unnecessary agony. A houl flew through him with the assault. Then, blessedly, the pain stopped, and this time, despite his best efforts to cling onto consciousness, his mind checked out even before his head hit the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm humbled by the fabulous feedback I've gotten so far about this fic… Thank-you all so much!

The sentence prompt for this chapter from submitted by jumbalabi:

Chapter prompt: "'You know you talk kinda fast.' Very slowly he answered, "Is that so?'"

Things are not looking up for our heroes, but at least they have each other. Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 3: Necessities<strong>

He woke feeling like he'd been beaten soundly. Every muscle ached and the pounding in his head seemed to beat in time with the strained pumping of his hearts. Odd memories of a woman's perfect voice and blue lights played in his mind. Peeling his eyes open, he looked around. Where in Rassilon's name…

Then his memory of his last waking moments came back in a flood, almost overwhelming him. The lights, the pain, the howls from the other side of the wall…

Rene!

Scooting to the grating, he called her, worry filling him. "Rene?" No response came, making his anxiety ramp up another notch. "Rene?!" he tried again louder this time, hoping maybe she just hadn't heard him the first time.

"Oh god," he heard her moan softly.

"Rene! Oh, thank Gods!" he exclaimed through the wall. Since he'd first woken in this cell, the only comforting thing had been the sound of her voice and the sudden worry she might no longer be there had terrified him. "Are you okay? What did they do to you?" quite aware how worried he sounded but not caring.

"You… you must've stepped on the light for me and passed out," she informed him. "I tried calling you, but you didn't answer. Then… the light on the floor went on in here and I stepped onto it before it changed colour and they could hurt you again," she explained, her voice slightly slurred. "How long have I been out?" she asked.

"Two hours, three minutes, twenty-two seconds," he informed her, trying to reign in his renewed frustration with her stubbornness. Why hadn't she just _listened_ to him when he told her not to help him! She could've been bloody killed, for Rassilon's sake! Somewhere inside him his good sense tamped his desire to lay into her for being so irresponsible, though it took a lot of willpower not to do so. Instead he managed a heartfelt plea, "Listen… I'd thank-you, but… I just can't have you do that for me," he said tensely. "You could be seriously hurt… you're only human and your species bodies are so fragile, Rene. Please… PLEASE let me deal with it next time, alright? My body is made to withstand much more than a human's," he pleaded.

"Hey… if I recall, _you're_ the one who passed out first," she reminded him, not unkindly. "And if they'd have shocked you again… I was already terrified they'd killed you! And I honestly thought that if they hadn't, you probably wouldn't make it if they hurt you again," she added, her previous worry for him echoing in her voice.

For a moment, he nearly lost his resolve to continue this argument with her. She meant well, after all. She was only doing for him what he had to do for her. Still… there was the undeniable truth that her human fragility made her that much more vulnerable than him. "I… I really do appreciate your good intentions, Rene… I do. It's just… I know how much more quickly you can be damaged than I can. Just… please think about it, alright?" he nearly begged.

From the other side of the wall he heard a deep sigh. "I'll think about it."

Sure that she was only humouring him, he wanted to continue making his point, but decided after a moment to just back off for a bit. This feisty girl was clearly of the headstrong variety and he very much doubted he was going to get any closer to truly winning this battle at the moment. Hopefully, if he just gave her a bit to let his argument really sink in she'd reconsider. "Thank-you," he intoned through the grating, letting it go as graciously as he could for the moment.

After a few seconds of silence, her voice drifted through the grating. "Did… did they hurt you will I was out?" she asked.

"No. After you… after _we_ passed out, nothing else happened," he said, bitterness sweeping through him on remembering her tortured screams echoing through the rooms. "Bloody bastards maybe thought we'd had enough since we were unconscious!" he shouted toward the door.

"Oi… keep it down!" she warned through the wall. "Don't want to piss 'em off even more."

"I guess you solved their little puzzle and our reward was a reprieve from the torture," he reasoned, his voice tight.

"Yeah," she agreed glumly.

What worried him was that the severity of the tests they'd already endured. They'd only been through two now, and he was sure they had more planned. If their captors planned to escalate the intensity of the trials, how in Rassilon's name were they ever going to survive them? Her especially? On top of that, she seemed completely intent on just giving herself over for torture just to save his skinny arse. He knew he was obsessing about the fact, but he just could stop worrying for her. Of course, he had done the same as she'd pointed out… but that was different. He wasn't human. He could handle it. She was clearly strong willed, but he knew her frail human anatomy wouldn't hold out like her will would and the thought of her sacrificing herself for him made him want to be sick.

This brave human woman whom he'd never even met seemed utterly willing to give up her life for a complete stranger and he felt like he was talking to a brick wall in trying to get her to see reason. He only hoped that he'd find some way to get them out of this before it came anywhere near having to test her resolve.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The rest of the day passed without incident. Their captors brought food twice before they dimmed the lights once again, imposing some sort of sleep schedule.

Rene had been vigilant the entire time, her senses piqued and ready to pick up on any changes in the environment. Their captors had brought two meals spaced hours apart, the first exactly the same as the one they'd supplied yesterday, but the second only held the brown tasteless 'nutrient balls' as she'd come to think of them. Getting stingy on the liquid dispensing, she mused. Well, at least they'd given her _something_.

Having eaten their second meal, she now had two trays and three empty bowls waiting to be collected. Their captors must have come to collect yesterday's meal while they slept last 'night'. Clearly they weren't planning to pick up their leavings again until they were once again sleeping. Well, she had no intention of falling asleep again tonight. Last night had been an accident, and not one she would let happen again.

Dekker had fallen quiet for a while, perhaps using the luxurious 'facilities', such as they were. Deciding she could put it off no longer either, she stood and made her way over to the dark hole in the floor on the other side of her cell. For the first time since she'd found herself here, she was desperately thankful her 'roommate' wasn't in the same room as she was.

Dropping her scrubs down so they pooled around her ankles, she squatted uncomfortably over the hole. She was pretty sure she was developing penis envy as she peed, trying her best to make sure she didn't wee on her flimsy breeches. God. How humiliating.

She wondered briefly if she'd ever been a situation before this in which she'd wished she'd been born with a willy. She doubted it, but then, maybe this kind of thing was common for her. She certainly hoped not. Finishing up, she considered her options. She couldn't really think of any other than the obvious. In lieu of wiping, she tried shaking her bottom a bit in an effort to get rid of any lingering drops. Again… bloody humiliating.

Speaking of humiliating, she was terribly thankful they hadn't furnished her meal with bran flakes, because she truly had no intention of using the facilities for _that_ if she could help it at all. There was no toilet paper supplied and the options for, er… cleaning up afterward were sketchy at best. It was bad enough she'd had nothing to wipe with _this_ time.

Pulling her scrubs back up, she moved back to sit by the grating once again. Listening, she didn't hear anything. Could he have fallen asleep? She hoped not. With the lights dimmed and no memories other than those of today and yesterday to keep her company, she really didn't want to be alone right now.

Gently rapping her knuckle on the wall a couple or three times, she quietly called her cell mate. "Dekker?"

"I'm here," he answered, obviously close to the grating. "I wasn't sure if you'd fallen asleep," he said, possibly explaining why he'd been so quiet on his side. She smiled a bit. He was such a good person. She knew she didn't have much to base that opinion on, but given what they'd been through, she didn't feel she was wrong about her assessment of him. He didn't know her from Adam, yet he really cared about whether she was hurt and especially if she was hurt because of him. He'd begged her to stop sacrificing herself for him. What he didn't know, is that it made her that much more determined to do exactly that. Given the same choice again, she'd make the same one.

"Nope. Still awake. I'm not gonna sleep if I can help it," she answered. A moment of silence followed. "I… I wonder if I've got… I don't know… a Mum or Dad out there wondering where I am," Rene wondered aloud. "I sort of hope I don't, really. I'd hate to think someone is worried mad about me right now. Other than myself, I mean," she clarified.

A small chuckle came from Dekker's side of the wall. "Yeah. But I imagine you probably have loads of people out there worried for you," he posited. "You're smart, personable… probably highly successful at whatever you do," he suggested.

Rene laughed. "How could you possibly know that?" she giggled. "You've only just met me. I could be… I don't know… a gruesome homicidal maniac… or a _lawyer_ for all we know," she smiled.

"Oh, I highly doubt you're either of those things," Dekker said, his voice light. "I imagine before now you wouldn't hurt a fly. Not that you'd hurt a fly _now_, that is. In fact, you'd probably jump in hot lava to save the poor little insect if your actions earlier are anything to go by." She thought she heard a smile in his voice with this comment.

"Are you likening yourself to an insect?" she smiled back.

"Oh. Well… I suppose compared to you…" he suggested.

"Oi," she chastised, "You sacrificed yourself for me many times today. There's nothing small or unsubstantial about you," she confirmed.

It was quiet for a moment before he said, "I'm sorry you're in this situation, Rene. But I'm not sorry you're the one who's beside me right now," he said, his voice dropping a bit. The deeper tone of his words sent a tiny shiver through her. Not that it should have. She'd never even laid eyes on him. There was something about his voice, though. Rich, tenor... sexy.

Oh for heaven's sake! What was she _thinking_? This was hardly the time to discover she had hormones.

Suddenly realizing she'd not replied, she said honestly, "Me too. I just wish we'd met at a pub or something instead of in some jail cell," she lamented.

A chuckle issued from his side of the wall. "Well, I doubt you'd even look twice at me if we met anywhere else," he shared. "Not that you've actually had a chance to look at me even _once_ in our current circumstances," he smiled.

"Oi! I bet you're easy on the eyes," she grinned.

She heard him huff on the other side of the wall. "Well, from what I can tell, I doubt I'd stand out in a crowd. And you probably wouldn't even be able to see me for all the blokes crowding to spend time with you," he mused.

"First of all… who knows what _I_ look like. And anyway, I imagine you're probably very attractive! Maybe… sort of… big. Like, I don't know… maybe a weightlifter or something," she guessed.

A snort floated through the grating. "Weeellll… I hate to disappoint, but from what I can see, I'm rather skinny, actually. Tall and skinny. Suppose it could be worse. Then again, haven't seen my own face yet. I could be spectacularly hideous, really. Googley eyes, rotten teeth… maybe a wonky ear. All around it could be a complete catastrophe. Now that I think about it, maybe I should be happy you can't see me," he rambled.

"'You know you talk kinda fast," Rene grinned, secretly loving the way he seemed to get lost in his own chatter.

Very slowly he answered, "Is that so?'"

Rene laughed loudly this time. What a plum. After a few moments sitting in comfortable silence, she ventured, "I know you don't remember or anythin', but do you think you maybe have a family out there waiting for you?" Rene asked lightly.

"Oh. Good question. Hadn't thought about it really. I suppose anything's possible," he conceded. "I'm not bonded with anyone, I know that much," he added.

"What do you mean? I'm sure you had mates, yeah?" Rene argued. Someone with his personality was surely a popular bloke.

"No, I mean… I'm not, er… 'with' anyone. Married," he clarified.

"Ohhhh," Rose intoned, now understanding. "But how do you know that? I'm sure you're not nearly as hideous as you're worried you are," she smiled. "I'm sure there are loads of women clamouring for you," she reasoned.

"Weeellll… I appreciate the sentiment, but no. I'm not bonded. I'd feel it. In my head. Time Lords bond telepathically in a way that creates a permanent sort of link between the bonded pair. I'd know if I was," he clarified.

"Oh. That's good," she said before her mind had a chance to filter her words. Mentally slapping herself, she cringed.

"Oh yes?" he replied, a smile permeating his voice.

"Um…. yeah. Cause… cause she'd be worried for you, wouldn't she?" she explained. "It would be awful for her," she unnecessarily elaborated.

"Riiiight," he said, his bloody sexy voice still carrying a smile.

"Oh, shut it," she chastised, blushing fiercely. "So… what do you reckon will be the next test?" Rene asked, very interested in changing the topic.

A sigh issued from next door. "Could be anything… but I imagine it won't be pleasant," he qualified. "They seem to be interested in how we're helping each other," he said, sounding thoughtful.

"Like they're… trying to see how well we communicate with each other?" Rene suggested.

"Maybe. Though I think it's possibly more about motivation. Altruism. The shocks were getting worse each time I helped you. Was it the same for you?" he asked.

She bit her lip. She'd hoped he hadn't experienced the same thing she had, but apparently he had. "Uh… yeah," she answered truthfully.

"Hmmm…" he intoned thoughtfully. She had the feeling he had more to say but wasn't saying it.

"What?" she asked, encouraging him to spill it. She needed to know what he thought was going on.

"I guess… I wonder if they're testing the limits of human sacrifice. How much will a human endure for a stranger," he said ominously.

Rene let that sink in. These inhumane bastards were using them like lab rats. Testing theories. "But… why? Why would they do this? What possible good could come of it?" she asked, trying to work out their motivation.

"It may be that their species is very similar to humans and they're using the results of human testing and comparing it to their own behaviours. Or…" he trailed off.

"Or what?" she urged, not sure she wanted to hear the rest but asking anyhow.

"...Or this might just be the first phase of a larger study of some kind," he admitted.

"You mean… this could be, like, the 'training phase' or something?" Oh God. If this was just the baseline portion of the testing, what could possibly be the next step? The very idea that it could get so much worse terrified her.

"Could be," he said solemnly.

They both sat for a few moments letting that idea sink in. After a moment, Dekker said, "You should probably try to sleep, Rene. I don't require much rest, so I'll stand watch, alright?" he suggested kindly. As much as she wanted to argue, she couldn't help her body's reaction to his suggestion, which was to yawn widely. "Sounds like your body agrees with me," he smiled.

"Yeah, alright," she reluctantly agreed. "Just… wake me if anything happens, yeah?" she instructed.

"I promise," he replied.

Lying down so her back was against the wall closest to him and her head was beside the grating, she tried to get comfortable. It was no easy feat. Finally, deciding to pillow her head on her hands, she settled. "Thanks for keeping watch, Dekker," she said softly.

"No problem, Rene. It's the least I can do," he said. "Sleep well," he added.

She doubted that was gonna happen, but she appreciated the sentiment. Closing her eyes, she tried to think of anything but the horror she'd suffered at the hands of their captors. A few minutes went by with only worry to keep her company. Finally, huffing in frustration, she opened her eyes.

"Can't sleep?" she heard Dekker ask through the wall.

"No. I… I can't stop thinking," she admitted.

"Well, let's see. I don't have any memories to share, but given what I've learned about myself so far, it seems I've got a fair gob on me. I'm sure I could come up with some story or other to lull you to sleep," he suggested.

Rene smiled. "I'd like that."

"Right. Weeelll, let's see. Okay… Once upon a time, there was a young Time Lord. Weeelll, I say _young_, but then he could be any age, really. Anyway… there was this young Time Lord who travelled through time and space, righting wrongs and giving goods to the poor, and all that. Anyway, one day, he wandered into a shop. Not just any shop, mind. This shop was his favourite. Not that all shops don't have some appeal… because they do. Nothing like a good shop. Anyhow… this one was his favourite because it sold… bananas. Yup. Big ripe potassium filled bananas…"

As much as Rene had been working to listen to his story… she couldn't help finding her eyes drooping. His voice continued to wash over her like a soothing bath, and before long, sleep claimed her.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Rene woke the next morning to blaring light once again pushing through her eyelids. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly cracked them open and looked around the room. The trays and bowls from yesterday were gone. They'd been back. But why hadn't Dekker woken her?

Listening, she thought she heard soft snoring issuing from his side of the grating. Knocking softly on the wall, she called him.

"What?!" he startled, his voice filled with alarm.

"It's okay," she soothed, "It's just me. You fell asleep," she informed him. For all his boasting about his species not needing as much rest, he certainly seemed to need it as much as she did.

"They're drugging us at night," he said, his voice low. Well, that certainly wasn't what she'd expected he'd say.

"What do you mean? Like, in our food?" she asked, suddenly realizing she'd been very naive to just assume he'd have noticed if their food had been tampered with.

"No. They're filtering it in through the vents along with the memory inhibiting drug. They're making sure we're asleep when they come in to retrieve the trays," he informed her.

She thought about this for a moment. "But… how come I'm getting tired so much faster than you?" she asked, then realizing she probably already knew the answer.

"It's my biology. It takes longer for the drug to affect me," he informed her. "In the end, though, I still succumb. Obviously," he said, clearly put out.

"Oh well. Thanks for trying, anyhow," she said.

Dekker grunted noncommittally, possibly disappointed he hadn't been able to fight the effects of the drug better. "I just wonder what our friends have in store for us today," he said warily.

She'd been thinking the same thing, but hadn't wanted to say it out loud. Giving it voice seemed to make it more real that she was being held captive by mad alien scientists. Trying to lighten the mood a bit, she said, "I don't know, but I hope it involves water. I'm bloody thirsty," she mused.

Outside the door she heard shuffling, making her heart stutter in her chest. It was possible they were simply feeding them again, but she wasn't taking any chances. Standing and squaring her shoulders, she waited.

At the base of the door, the now familiar slot appeared and a tray was pushed over the threshold. The slot whooshed closed. Sighing, she approached the tray and looked down onto it. Exactly the same as last time. Brown balls, no liquid. On seeing her tray, anxiety began to filter through her. Nothing to drink.

Next door she heard his trap door whoosh shut as well. Bringing her tray to sit with it near the grate, she murmured, "I think they're trying to see how long it'll take before we shrivel up and blow away like dead leaf."

"What?" Dekker said, sounding concerned.

"I didn't get any of that yellow juice again this time. Did you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did. Did you say, 'again'? You mean, you didn't get any last meal either?" he asked, concern laced in his voice.

"Um… no. I just thought maybe they were giving us liquids only once a day or something," she confirmed.

"They've been giving me liquid each meal, Rene," he confirmed lowly, sending fear skittering through her.

"Oh my God…" she breathed. Was this part of the testing? Were they trying to find out what happens to humans if they're not given liquids? Well, she could bloody TELL them what happens… they _die_!

Anger now momentarily replaced the fear snaking through her veins. How _dare_ these bloody creatures treat any living thing this way! Standing, she stepped purposefully toward the door and pounded on it. "Oi! Come here _this instant!_" she shouted. "I'm a bloody sentient being… I have _RIGHTS!_" she yelled.

Beneath her bare feet, a square of flooring lit deep purple sending a bolt of agony through her so strong she saw stars. A howl of pain issued from somewhere deep inside her as a result. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

"Rene!" she heard Dekker call, his worried voice seeping through the wall.

Falling to the floor, a pained sob escaped her. "We're gonna die here, aren't we?" she said, tears now liberally flowing. She'd had enough. She'd wanted to try to stay strong… to show these bastards they couldn't best her… to be some sort of support for her cellmate… but she was losing her battle to maintain any hope. Her body had taken beating after beating and now they were withholding even basic necessities. She was going to die in this bloody cell being tortured or literally dying of thirst.

A frustrated grunt played through the vent. "Gods! This is…" she heard Dekker growl. She thought she maybe heard him let out a deep breath. "We just have to try to bide our time, Rene. I promise you… we'll get out of this," he vowed.

Helplessness seemed to lead to futile promises, but Rene actually felt some comfort in his words. At least _he_ still had hope. She just prayed it would be rewarded with freedom at the end of all this.


	4. Chapter 4

Another chapter for your reading, er... pleasure(?)... well, your reading _experience_, anyhow! Things continue to escalate for our pair, in many ways...

The following is the sentence prompt for this chapter: "I need water and better clothing"

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 4: Thirsty<strong>

The hours between meals seemed to be the slowest Rene had ever experienced. Not that she actually remembered having experienced any days before waking up _here_, but she couldn't imagine a day seeming any longer.

Most of it had been spent on edge, waiting for their captors to introduce some new experiment, but thankfully… or perhaps worryingly… they didn't. She and Dekker wiled away the hours chatting on and off. They'd entertained themselves with made up stories, and she'd had to admit that hers definitely paled in comparison to his wildly unusual tales which were interspersed with numerous tangents, which, she was learning, she loved.

"You know… I'm pretty sure we should go for a drink when this is all over," Rene suggested. "I can't imagine what kind of stories you'd tell if you were drunk," she giggled after a particularly long and drawn out story about a talking llama type creature and it's attempt to smuggle contraband radishes onto some planet whose name she couldn't even pronounce.

"Oh, I'd imagine they'd be pretty much the same," he mused. "Don't get drunk, Time Lords. Weeeelllll, I could _let_ myself get drunk… just tell my body not to bother quickly metabolizing the alcohol. Not much point in that, really, though, is there? Then all you'd have is a blathering Time Lord intent on drawing out stories longer than socially acceptable on pretty much _any_ planet."

Rose grinned, once again thankful that if she'd had to have been incarcerated anywhere, at least she was housed beside him.

"In any case, your husband probably wouldn't care for it much if I showed up with you at the pub," he said nonchalantly.

"What makes you think I'm married?" she smiled. 'M not wearin' a ring or anythin'," she observed.

"Oh no? Weeeellll, they may have removed it. I can't imagine that you're not someone's significant other," he finished.

"Oh yeah? Why's that then," she asked, knowing she was shamelessly flirting. At this point… did it really matter? If they got out of here alive and she _did_ happen to have a boyfriend, they could always chalk it up to the stress of being imprisoned, she reasoned. And it probably was, right?

"Well, let's see," he started, "... you're smart. Even brilliant. You're brave. You're blonde. And you're willing to laugh at a bloke's bad jokes. All around I'd say you're a catch, Rene T...T- Taggart."

Rene laughed. "Taggart? Where'd you come up with that?"

"Don't know," he said happily. "You just sound like a Taggart, I suppose."

Rene grinned to herself. "Well, I suppose I _am_ blonde, I can't really deny that," she said, harkening back to his list of her positive attributes. "I don't know about brave, though. I've lost it more than once since I got here," she said, remembering her breakdown the night before.

"Hey… being brave means that you face your fears, you know. It doesn't mean they don't still scare the daylights out of you," he explained gently. "And you, Rene, have faced more than more frightening things than any sentient being should ever have to face since you woke up in this hellhole," he affirmed.

Tears prickled in her eyes. He actually thought she was brave. And, she supposed, if his definition was right… she actually was. "Thanks," she said, softly, her voice tight in an attempt to choke back the tears threatening to fall.

"You are what I want to be when we come out of this," he shared. "...and we _will_ get out of this. Somehow," he once again promised. He sounded so sure. Well… she wasn't about to dash his spirit. The man had it in droves, after all.

"Well… unfortunately, I have to use the loo again," she admitted into the grating before she realized what she'd said. Smacking her hand to her forehead, she cringed. She wondered for a moment if oversharing was something she did often.

A soft chuckle floated through the wall. "Sounds like a plan," he confirmed. "I may partake as well, since we're sharing." She could hear the smile in his voice and silently cursed him.

"Git," she said softly, grinning.

"I heard that," he said happily.

Shaking her head, she moved to the hole in the floor and pulled down the flimsy trousers. God, she hated these blasted scrubs, regarding them as she squatted. The thin fabric barely filtered the cool air in the room and they were starting to get a bit manky. Well, it made sense. They'd been in these cells for days without soap, deodorant or a change of clothes.

Finally, her body released a tiny flow of urine. What struck her immediately was the strong odour. Made sense, she supposed. That's what happened when you weren't given anything to drink for a while.

Finishing up, she pulled up the bottoms and made her way back to the grating. On the other side, she heard tiny 'tings' and scratches. "What are you up to in there?" she asked quietly.

"I'm working at getting the vent cover off," he shared.

"What… with your fingers?" she asked incredulously. "Do Time Lords have talons for nails or something?"

"Yup!" he agreed. "Okay.. not really. I just noticed that the bolts aren't screwed on too tightly. That, and the muscles in my fingers are a bit stronger than a human's," he informed her. "There! I've managed to get one off already," he said triumphantly.

"Great! Keep at it then, talon boy!" she encouraged brightly. She sat for a moment just listening to his continued tinkering, then ventured, "So… other than claws, what else do you have that's different than a human?" she asked, curious.

"Um… well, let's see. Since I'm a Time Lord, that'll mean I've got two hearts. A third kidney. Two livers. Respiratory bypass… and sixteen fingers and toes."

"What?! Really?" The kidney and liver she could imagine, but his hands would have to be the size of catcher's mitts to house so many fingers! For a moment her imagination wandered to decidedly inappropriate territory and she couldn't help but wonder…

"Nah… I'm just taking you for a ride," he admitted happily. "Normal human-y looking hands and toes. The rest was true, though," he added.

"You plonker," she chuckled.

"Yeah, I am, a bit. Wonder if I'm usually such a plonker?" he said thoughtfully.

"I guess we'll find out soon, yeah?" she said hopefully.

"That's the hope," he affirmed. After a few minutes of continued 'tings' and muffled scratches against the metal of the grating, he said supportively, "How are you holding up?"

"Oh… you know. I need water and better clothing, but other than that I'm right as rain," she shared lightly, licking her lips in an effort to wet them. She was actually terribly thirsty now, but dwelling on it did nothing but cement how very needy she was for a drink. "You?"

A sigh drifted through the vent. "I'm alright. Could do with a sonic screwdriver about now, though," he added.

Rene wasn't sure what that was, exactly, but she assumed it would be a big help in the removal of the grating.

"Aha! Another one down," he said. "Two more to go."

He always sounded so positive, even when things were obviously not looking up.

Just then, she heard shuffling outside her door. "They're coming!" she whispered loudly to Dekker through the vent. A square at the bottom of the door once again disappeared and a tray was pushed through it.

Moving to the door, Rene's heart lifted on seeing the golden liquid filing a second bowl on the tray. She never thought she'd be so happy to see juice again in her life.

PIcking up the tray, she settled again beside the grating and took the blessedly liquid filled bowl up in her hands. Tipping it to her lips, she took a long sip.

An agony filled scream pierced filled the room, but it wasn't coming from her. "Dekker!" she shouted, hastily putting the bowl down. "Dekker!"

He was still screaming and his cries echoed through the rooms. "DEKKER!" They didn't seem to end. The pained wail made her stomach twist. Looking around the room frantically, she searched for a lighted square to stand on. There was nothing. No way she could see that she could help him.

Helplessly, she shouted for him, and between she begged their captors to stop hurting him. That she'd do anything… just please stop!

After what seemed like eternity, his cries ended and the rooms fell quiet.

"Dekker?!" she yelled, desperate to hear his voice. Had they killed him? Had his Time Lord biology finally failed him?

A pained moan issued from the next room, making her nearly sob. "Dekker! Dekker… please talk to me," she begged, needing to make sure he was conscious.

"I'm…" he choked, "I'm… okay," he gasped.

She couldn't help it. A strangled sob left her on hearing him. "Oh God! Thank God… I was terrified they'd killed you!" she admitted, relief pulsing through her.

"No… not this time," he answered breathily.

"Oh, Dekker… I'm so sorry… there was nothing I could do! There wasn't any light on the floor… or button to press… nothing!"

"It's okay, Rene," he assured her.

"What… what happened just before they hurt you?" she asked, trying to figure out if there was rhyme or reason for the punishment in the first place.

"I, uh… I was just walking back to the corner with the tray. That's it," he answered. "Did anything happen over there?" he asked.

"Well, no… I don't think so. I had brought my tray over and I…" her voice trailed off. She'd drank.

"What?" Dekker asked.

"I drank. They gave me juice this time. I just… I took a sip and… and…" guilt filtered through her. "Oh my god…"

"No. NO, Rene. This was NOT your fault," he said, obviously very aware what she was thinking.

"No, Dekker… don't you see? They wanted me to drink it so they could torture you! And I _did_!"

"Of course you did! How could you possibly have known, Rene. They're doing this on purpose," he said, obviously entreating her to understand. "They want to you choose."

"You mean… they… they've been withholding liquid, and now… now they won't let me drink it? It's sitting her in front of me, and I can't drink it!" she said almost frantically. Her throat was nearly burning with thirst as she looked at the bowl of juice taunting her from the tray.

Dekker's voice came at her with words she should have expected from him but she denied nonetheless. "You have to drink it," he ordered.

She laughed. A barked empty laugh. "Yeah. I'll just sit and enjoy a cool drink here while they electrocute you in the next room. That's NOT gonna happen," she said solidly. There was no question in her mind. What he was suggesting was NOT an option.

"You have to, Rene. You're already dehydrated. It's been…" he paused, "... twenty-four hours and nine minutes since you've had fluids. Your body can only last a couple of days without it" he said seriously.

"It's not gonna happen, Dekker. I'm NOT drinkin' it. Not if they're gonna torture you for it," she confirmed.

"Rene…" he said, raising his voice slightly.

"Dekker! I said… I'm not doin' it! Now drop it, yeah?!" she commanded. She hated barking at him, but there was going to be no budging her on this and she needed him to know that.

"I'm not dropping it, Rene. But I'll leave it for now. Please… please think about it. I can live through the pain, but you won't live more than another two days without water," he entreated.

Pushing the tray toward the door, she lay down on the floor beside the grating, her hands under her head. "Tell me a story, yeah? Please?" she said, her voice low.

"Gods you're stubborn," he said, his voice frustrated.

Rene laughed lightly. "I'm a bit less worth dating now that you know the truth about me," she stated. "Blonde and stubborn. I guess that's what I am," she smiled softly.

Sighing, Dekker replied, "That you are, Rene Taggart. But any bloke would still be lucky to have you," he affirmed.

"I don't know. But I do know that I think the same about you," she said bravely, hoping she hadn't gone too far.

A soft chuckle came from his side. "I'm not sure I'm into blokes, myself," he said, as if considering it.

Rene laughed. "You plum," she giggled.

"Not so much into plums, either. More of a banana man, I think," he said seriously, "Though… I suppose I can't be sure about that," he added.

Rene smiled, happy she hadn't scared him off with her unabashed flirty comment. "How about that story now?" she said, trying to keep her voice light.

"Alright… but only if you please, please consider drinking more later?" he said, trying to sound casual but failing miserably.

"Story, please…" she repeated with mock impatience.

Sighing, he gave up nagging and dove into a story for her. A few minutes later, the lights dimmed for their 'evening', but neither of them noticed. Dekker just continued on with his story, filled with meadows and fish with arms, and llamas with hats. What was it with him and llamas?

She listened intently for a quite a while until she couldn't fight the drug he'd told her they were pumping into their cells. She really didn't mind sleeping tonight though. It was that much less time she had to think about how thirsty she was and whether or not she was going to die in this cell.


	5. Chapter 5

Our 'Rene' is once again thrust into making an impossible choice, and the man who cares about her is less than thrilled with her decision.

Chapter sentence prompt: From .com

Writing Prompt #56 - The walls were smothering him, pressing down on him from every angle.

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 5: Forbidden<strong>

Rene had fallen asleep to the comforting sound of Dekker's voice and, much to her relief, woke to the same. Her dreams had been filled with horrid images, mostly of her imagination's version of Dekker suffering horrendously. Waking from such a nightmare to hear him gently calling had settled her drumming heart and had made waking in this horrid place slightly more tolerable.

Now if she could only get rid of this headache. If only she could have a drink.

Opening her grainy eyes, she sat up slowly, and immediately regretted doing so. The world spun dangerously making her stomach turn. Swallowing back the urge to release the bile-only contents of her stomach, she took in the room. Her trays from the day before had once again been removed while she slept, but in the corner of the room, the still full bowl of golden liquid sat still and waiting. It was so much more than merely a bowl of liquid, though. It was the holy grail. It was the giver of life. And it was not allowed.

"Rene?" she heard again. Once again thanking the universe his voice was there to greet her.

"I'm here," she rasped back. Her voice was definitely reflecting the desert that was her throat.

"Sorry… the lights came on a while back… I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he said, clearly concerned.

"Um, yeah. I… um, they didn't wake me. I must've been pretty knackered," she confirmed, realizing she didn't feel very rested despite having clearly slept a good deal longer than he had. "How long have the lights been on?" she asked, knowing he probably had an exact number. He didn't disappoint.

"An hour and twelve minutes," he shared, obviously not having had to think about it. It was simply another fact he could pull out of his head. Once again, she marvelled at the incredible amount of knowledge just simply available to him without much thought. She wondered if it was everyone in his species that had that ability or if it was just him.

"They should be bringing our food trays soon" he advised her. The desperate thirst she'd been feeling once again reared it's head and she eyed the bowl in the corner of the room. He obviously didn't know they'd left her that bowl to taunt her.

"It doesn't matter," she assured him. "I'm not gonna drink," she promised. And she meant it. After the pain she'd made him suffer the night before, she had no intention of letting him endure it again if she could help it. And apparently she could.

"Rene," his anxious voice entreated, "Please. _Please_. Reconsider. It'll hurt me for a bit, but you… you'll give yourself reprieve from the terrible thirst you must be feeling," he begged, obviously using the words he thought would lure her to partake in the forbidden liquid she so craved. "Please."

As if on cue, Rene heard the shuffling of feet outside her door. They were back with more of the one thing that could relieve her. The square opening appeared once again at the bottom of the door and one of the familiar trays appeared. It was no surprise to her now that it held two full bowls, one of which had the ability to kill her cellmate.

Unwilling to trust herself to move, she sat still, eying the tray from a distance, knowing full well that if she got any closer to it, her treacherous body would be quite happy to let Dekker suffer.

"Did they bring you something to drink?" she heard Dekker ask softly.

She didn't answer. He knew they had.

"Rene? If they did… you need to drink. Do you hear me?" he entreated.

Anger bubbled in her veins. What kind of choice was this?! Save herself or him. That's what this all boiled down to. These sick bastards were doing this _why_? To allow some insight into the human psyche at what cost? Clearly they had no qualms about torturing other species simply to gather information. Of course, her own species was no better. Injecting rats and mice with cancer causing agents, making them run through mazes and swim until exhausted, exposing them to harmful radiation and toxic chemicals. All in the name of science. Or worse… vanity. And that's what she was now. A rat. A mouse. A helpless creature doing what had to be done just to survive. Well, _fuck_ these bastards and their tests. She was better than this. She was bigger than physical need and she wouldn't let them eat away at her deep seated belief of what was right and wrong.

Squaring her jaw, she climbed to her feet and teetered there for a moment. The innocent looking tray sat by the door as it had before, just waiting to be taken. It swam in and out of focus as the painful pounding in her head increased.

"Rene?!" she heard from a distance.

With determination, she moved to stand over the offending tray and picked it up in both hands. Glaring down at the glistening substance she knew had the power to save her and kill her cellmate, she allowed her fury over this impossible situation to give her strength. She was either strikingly weak or the tray was impossibly heavy, but that didn't stop her from hefting it above her head with a grunt. With a strangled cry she heaved it across the room in one mighty throw. Red clouded her vision as she stalked to the remaining bowl of liquid in the corner. Picking it up, she threw it at the door with all her remaining strength.

"Rene!" she heard a man shout.

As the bowl clattered to the ground she took in the satisfying carnage before her. The empty tray sat abandoned in the corner of the room now with the brown food lumps strewn about the floor. The green walls and ground were painted in yellow juice but it was hard to see it with all the black dots swimming in her vision. A sort of relief washed over her as she took in the evidence of her decision to do what she believed was right. Despite her show of inner strength, however, her physical stamina and mental clarity suddenly dissolved, making her weak. Backing herself up to the corner, she slid down shakily against the back wall. This was it. She'd made her decision. She was going to die here.

Now sitting on the cold floor, she leaned her full weight against the wall and rested her head against it. In the distance she thought she could hear a man's familiar voice calling her, but the volume of the pain in her head was too loud, making it difficult to understand what he was saying. Her eyes and throat burned and all she wanted to do was sleep. Sleep would make it all better.

Closing her eyes, she allowed her mind to drift. She swore as she let her mind lift from her body that she could actually feel her blood crawling slower and slower in her veins. A small part of her felt like she should probably care about that, but a larger part of her simply wanted to go. Away from the light and away from the pain.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Dekker paced back and forth in his cell, feeling his anxiety build to new heights. He'd had no response from Rene now for over fifteen minutes. He called out a few times for help, wary of the possible painful consequences, but there were none and no reply was given. He'd begged her to drink. Her human body could do without liquid for such a short time and there was no question in his mind that she was unconscious now. Damn it! The sheer cruelty of such an experiment completely floored him. How could any sentient creature treat another this way? It was wrong on every level he could think of. And, of course, his caring cellmate had completely risen to the occasion, letting herself become a victim for him. So he wouldn't suffer. It was madness!

Outside his cell he heard movement and he quickly pressed his ear to the door. They were talking, but their voices were muffled and he wasn't able to make out their words. "HEY!" he called, pounding the door.

He was not surprisingly ignored and in moments he heard them entering Rene's room. Moving quickly to the grating he listened intently. They'd stopped talking and were obviously moving her. "Oi!" he called again, "What are you doing to her?!" he demanded. He thought he heard a surprised gasp before he heard them speaking animatedly between them. He still couldn't make out what they were saying, though, which was driving him mad. They must be wearing some sort of protective head covering and it was muffling their voices.

He was about to call out again when he heard Rene's door slam shut and there was once again movement in the hallway. Had they taken her? Was she still alive?

"Rene?!" he shouted through the grating. Silence answered him. His hearts clenched. They'd taken her. He couldn't be positive, but he was pretty sure she was no longer in the next room. Dread bolted through him. She was gone.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hours passed with no activity and the walls were smothering him, pressing down on him from every angle. He had to get out of here. He had to find Rene. Surely she wasn't dead. Humans could definitely die from dehydration, he knew, but there was a good chance at this point that she was still alive as long as they'd kept her that way.

He'd used the hours since she'd been removed from her cell to once again scour his own room for any means of escape. He hadn't been too hopeful, so he wasn't terribly surprised that his exploration once again came up with nothing.

He was picking at the one remaining bolt holding the grating on to the vent, still wracking his brain to think of any way he might get to Rene, when he once again heard activity coming from the hall. It was close to their usual feeding time, so he tried not to get his hopes up that the visit was anything more than to provide him with sustenance.

He was thoroughly surprised then to hear Rene's cell door open and the sound of muffled voices once again meeting his ears. Calling out again hopefully, he shouted, "Oi! What have you done with her? Is she alright?!" Their captors paused for a moment, seemingly listening. Well he wasn't about to disappoint. "Can you hear me? Please… You have to listen," he entreated, "I don't know what you're hoping to achieve here… but we're intelligent beings. This is _hurting_ us," he emphasized hoping to engender some sympathy from them.

The beings in the next cell suddenly began chattering between them, their words once again obscured by some sort of barrier. At least they were hearing him… that had to be a good thing. He tried again. "If you'll just talk to us… maybe we can help you! It doesn't have to be like this," he tried.

But their captors were no longer listening. They'd apparently done what they'd come to do and were now leaving.

"Oi! Come back!" he called through the wall.

The door in the next room slammed shut and the rooms became quiet once again. But they'd done something in there. Had they returned Rene? Daring to hope, he called her. "Rene?"

No voice responded, but he could've sworn he heard movement. "Rene? Are you there?" he said, raising his voice, desperate to know if it was her on the other side of the wall.

A soft moan met his ears. Her moan. Unbidden, tears prickled in his eyes. "Rene!" he barked happily. "Oh, thank Gods… you're alive!"

His excitement was met with a pained groan from the other room. "Dekker?" she said softly.

He nearly laughed out loud with relief. "I'm here," he said eagerly. "Are you… well, I'm sure you're not okay, but… did they hydrate you do you think? How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm, uh…" she cleared her throat, "I'm feeling a lot better, actually," she admitted. "Still have a bloody wicked headache, but… I don't feel thirsty," she shared.

The tension he'd been holding in every muscle seemed to ease a bit. They'd not wanted their lab rat to die just yet. "Rassilon… I'm so glad you're alright," he admitted, trying not to sound as desperately relieved as he felt, but still wanting her to know how worried he was.

"Yeah, well, I guess they still want me around for some reason," she said, obviously thinking along similar lines as he was. "I just wish I could remember something after they took me. After I fell asleep in here... " she said, obviously a bit upset she didn't have any information to share about their captors.

"Gods, Rene… I'm just so happy you're alright," he expounded. "Getting information would've been nice, but it's nothing compared to the fact that you're okay," he assured her.

"Yeah. For now," she said glumly.

It tore at him that he had no good reply to that. He wished desperately that he could assure her that she didn't have to worry about her safety anymore. That he had a plan and that they'd be out of this slag heap by morning. Sadly, though, he knew he couldn't offer that. There was no valiant escape plan or a daring rescue in the works. For the time being they were stuck here.

In the distance, sounds of food trays being distributed met his ears. "Sounds like meal time again," he shared after a moment, knowing she probably hadn't heard their captors coming yet.

A sad whimper floated through the grating.

"What's wrong?" he asked, having an idea what she was worried about, but not about to voice it himself unless she did.

"What if… what if they do it again? What if I drink and they… they…"

"No, Rene. That's not gonna happen. They're done with that now, I think. They've confirmed that humans are willing to forgo water for the greater good," he said firmly, praying he wasn't full of shite and that they weren't actually planning to repeat the same experiment once again.

"You think?" her small voice said, sounding a bit hopeful now.

"Yeah. I do," he confirmed sounding much more sure that he felt.

He thought he heard her take a steadying breath. A moment later the bottom of his door slid up and a tray was pushed inside. The usual meal sat on it and he pulled it over to the grating. He heard Rene do the same, and a few moments later she said, "I'm gonna take a drink now." It was a warning and a plea.

"Drink, Rene. Please," he said, knowing he sounded a bit too emphatic.

Sighing again, she paused for a short moment before finally committing. "Okay. Here goes," she said, her voice deceptively light. "Cheers."

Bracing himself, he sat with clenched fists and a tight jaw. Closing his eyes, he waited. A second went by. Then another. Nothing happened. Almost slumping in relief he let out a relieved breath. "I'm alright. See? No worries," he assured her, sounding much more confident than he'd felt.

Rene sighed. "Thank God," she said, possibly taking another gulp of her drink. After a few minutes of eating and drinking, Rene ventured, "Are you alright? Did… did anything happen while I was gone?" she asked, obviously concerned for him.

"No. Nadda. It was desperately quiet in here. Nothing happened. Just… missed having you around, is all," he confided. "I had to talk to myself and I never seemed to let myself get a word in," he shared.

A little laugh filtered through the vent making him smile. "You do have a good sized gob on you," she confirmed playfully.

"Oi! A few hours away and you suddenly feel entitled to besmirch my good name! Not that I've had my name for long, mind… but still…"

"Oh, shut it," she laughed, once again making him grin. Her giggle chimed through the vent lightening his hearts.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, and he simply took the time to savour her presence again. She was safe. For now.

After a while, he heard her push her tray along the flooring. "Feeling okay?" he ventured.

"Yeah. 'M knackered, though," she confided.

"It takes a lot out of you… nearly dying of thirst," he confirmed. He thought he heard her release a little amused puff. "I didn't want you to do that, you know," he said, now serious. "You… you could've _died_, Rene. I couldn't have been able to live with myself if you had, you know. It would've killed me, knowing you sacrificed your life for mine," he shared honestly.

It was quiet for a moment before she answered. "I couldn't let you suffer. I know you didn't want me to be hurt either. I know that. But I had the power to help you. I couldn't _not_, you know?" she said, honesty shining in her voice.

He knew it. He knew it too well. She was too good for her own good, this human. "I know," he said resignedly. He wasn't going to change her. She was intent on putting herself last. Well, if he could help it at all, he'd make sure after this, she was first. That her needs were met first, that her hopes were filled first, that her dreams were realized first. This human woman deserved so much and if he had any say in it, she'd have it all. Only the best.

"Anyway," she continued, as he hadn't answered, "I'm sort of fond of your voice now," she admitted. "I'd feel terrible if all their torture made you mute." He swore he could hear a smile in her voice as she spoke.

"Oh yes?" he smiled back. "I _knew_ you liked my gob. Bit of a runaway at times, but at least I'm entertaining," he prodded.

She laughed. "Yeah… you're definitely that," she agreed. After a moment, she added, "Really, though. I'm sorry you're here… but I'm not sorry you're beside me in this," she said softly. "It's been… I've been so scared… I can't imagine going through this alone."

Dekker's hearts squeezed with her admission. He felt the same. "Me neither," he admitted. He wanted to say more, but he honestly had no idea what else to say. At least, nothing that didn't sound ridiculously sappy, anyway. The light above dimmed then to it's 'nighttime' level, as he'd come to think of it. "Looks like the powers that be have decided it's beddy-by time," he observed.

"Yeah," Rene confirmed, sounding wary. No doubt she was thinking, like he was, that sleep didn't seem to be any sort of reprieve in this place, because the following days brought only misery.

Lying beside the vent, they chatted for a few minutes before he encouraged her to close her eyes and let sleep take her. Finally she did, and he could hear her steady breaths through the grating. She must have fallen asleep with her face very close to it. The sound of her soft exhales soothed him as he continued working at the last screw. He knew it wasn't going to fix anything, but somehow, having power over at least this one small thing made him feel useful.

After about fifteen minutes of work, the last bolt finally came loose and Dekker pulled the grating away from the wall as covertly as he could, lying on his side so his body was blocking the camera's view. Slipping his arm into the hole, he felt along the inside of Rene's wall until his hand contacted the rough grating covering her vent. A small zing of triumph played through him even though his arm was bent at an awkward angle as he wrapped his fingers through the wider holes in the mesh. He thought he felt Rene's warm breath puffing against the skin of his fingers and the feeling was like magic. Having been listening to her for days, he now could _feel_ her, even if it was only her breath. Who would've thought the air from someone's lungs could be considered such a gift? It definitely was. _Hers_ was, anyway.

He lay that way for a while just enjoying the feeling of her breath on his skin before he started feeling the effects of the soporific they were once again pumping into his cell. He should pull his arm out and replace the grating, he knew, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Feeling the physical evidence of her presence comforted him more than he could have imagined it would. Giving up on the idea of moving, he tried to angle himself a bit better to relieve some of the discomfort in his shoulder as he wrapped his fingers further through the grating. Finally, a bit more comfortable, he let himself drift off to the misty image of a small blonde human nestled in his arms as they lay sleeping together in a field of red grass.


	6. Chapter 6

There are two sentence prompts for this chapter… I couldn't decide which I wanted more, so I used both. Hope you like!

Chapter prompts:

daiiywritingprompt

"You know I love you," he said, somehow keeping a fearful tone out of his voice.

daiiywritingprompt

She sat there, cross-legged, as the world burned.

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 6: Fire<strong>

Dekker woke in the artificial morning to the bright glare of the above light once again shining too intensely. His arm was desperately cramped, still lodged deeply in the hole in the wall. He was about to pull it back when he heard a gasped breath and felt the soft touch of warm fingers against his. "Dekker?"

"Morning," he croaked as his fingers splayed with her touch.

"You did it," she said happily, her fingers wrapping around his through the grating on her side of the wall. "It's so fantastic to actually _see_ you! Well… _bits_ of you, anyway," she added.

"And those aren't even my most exciting bits, either," he heard himself say before he could check himself. Oh, for… he needed some sort of filter for this mouth.

"Oi!" she laughed. "You really are a cheeky one, aren't you?"

"Am I?" he replied innocently, hoping to pass off his rather forward comment. "Maybe I am. Could be any number of things in real life, I suppose. I guess 'cheeky' isn't too terrible if that's the worst I am," he considered aloud.

They sat together for a few moments, Rene's fingers still touching his. "I, er… do you mind? If I, um, hold your hand for a bit?" her tentative voice broached. "'S a bit lonely in here."

Again, he felt a rather strong feeling of protectiveness for this brave human woman. "I don't mind. Was kind of hoping you would," his own tenor voice admitted quietly.

He felt her gently rub small circles over his knuckles with her thumb after a moment and the feeling was heavenly. It was so comforting to have someone else to touch. Gods… imagine what it would feel like to actually hold her. "I see Time Lords have your basic five digits, then?" he heard her say. "I actually believed you for a mo the other day, you know… that rubbish about seven fingers or whatever." He thought he heard a smile in her voice.

Around them, a cloying buzzer went off, filling the rooms and making them both jump. The warm, pleasant feeling he'd been enjoying moments ago quickly changed to nauseous dread. Pulling his arm free of the vent, Dekker jumped up to survey the ground before him for lights. That's when he saw it.

Sitting in the middle of the room on the floor was an innocuous looking headset. They must've brought it in during the night when they'd removed his food trays. Moving to it, he warily picked it up to study it. It was a metallic helmet like contraption that would encase the top of his skull and would cover his eyes. A chin strap was affixed to the sides of the shell making it look like some inventor's sad attempt at a motorcycle helmet.

He knew immediately what he was meant to do, but in the interest of self preservation he was justifiably wary. He was startled into action however, when Rene's piercing screams met his ears. "Rene!" he shouted fruitlessly, still holding the contraption in his hands. Quickly looking down at the offending item, he knew what had to be done and he couldn't put it off any longer. Pulling the device over his head to seat it firmly on his skull, he quickly snapped the chin strap in place and waited.

The cries of agony from the other side of the wall dissolved into pained whimpers and he let out an anxious breath. Rene was alright. Now he could worry about himself.

"Dekker?" Rene called.

"I'm alright, Rene. Are you?" he called back.

"Yeah… but, really… what did you do? How did you stop it this time?" she puffed through the residual pain. Despite her breathlessness he knew he heard true fear for him in her voice.

He swallowed. "I, uh… there's some sort of headset in here… they wanted me to put it on. That's… that's all I know right now," he shared. He hated worrying her, but he knew it was worse to not know what was happening to the only person you had to rely on.

"What? Well, take it off! They're going to hurt you, Dekker! Please!" she entreated.

He let out a small chuckle. "You're one to talk, my headstrong human," he said warmly.

"I mean it, Dekker… _please_..." she almost whimpered.

A buzz suddenly issued from inside the helmet making his skull vibrate and within moments he felt the first tendrils of a mental intrusion. Fear darted through him with the dawning realization of what he was wearing. This wasn't some pain delivering contraption. It was a dreamscape interface device. In the right hands it probed your mind for positive experiences and would build on them in fantastic ways. The device had the power to make a person feel he was actually living the experience and a motor neuron inhibitor stopped the wearer from physically acting out whatever scenario he was experiencing. In the wrong hands, though…

He knew he shouldn't fight it, but it was instinct. His mind was meant to be protected. Unlike a human's mind, his was capable of empathic and even telepathic communication in the right circumstances. As a Time Lord he'd probably built walls to protect his consciousness from inadvertently sensing other's feelings and from any unwanted intrusion by probing minds. _This_ was about as intrusive as it got.

The device must have sensed his reluctance to let it advance it's unwanted invasion of his mind because a moment later the cutting cries of Rene's pain blasted through the wall. No! He was… he'd put on the bloody thing, hadn't he?! That wasn't enough though, and he knew it. Rene's agonized shouts were proof of that. These barbaric creatures weren't going to be happy without their blessed data.

Clenching his teeth, he purposely drew into himself and worked at allowing this torture device access to his mind. In the distance he registered the end of Rene's screams and once again he reflected on just how sick these beings were.

Now free to explore his considerable Time Lord mind, the device hummed and beeped while Dekker felt it intrude and look into memories he, himself, was still completely unable to access. Any number of horrors might be available to this machine to elaborate on and use against him. He only prayed he could weather them without going mad.

He knew the minute the machine found his visual cortex. Pictoral evidence of it's presence in his mind played before him as if he was walking through it, experiencing each image for the first time. And for him, it was. At least, for _this_ him. He knew somewhere, somewhen, at least part of the picture floating before him was familiar, but at the moment, it all seemed new.

He was standing in a field of red grass. The tall trees surrounding the field housed silver leaves that caught and reflected the sunlight in a way that took his breath away. It was... gorgeous. He knew he'd been here before… an echo of a memory played at him, but the drug they'd plied his mind with stopped him from accessing its name. He wondered if this was earth. No. Wrong colour. It must be… Gallifrey. It was annoying that neuronal inhibitor seemed to allow him to recall facts about places, but didn't give him the same access to images of them.

Small creatures trundled about in the tall grass surrounding them and interesting insects flew above and around him. He knew he shouldn't be impressed by the very real quality of his surroundings… this wasn't a pleasure tour, after all… but he couldn't help but admire the technology he was experiencing. That a machine could take your mental images, manipulate them, and then make you feel as if you were physically experiencing them… it was incredible, really.

In the distance he saw a flame shoot up, blanketing a silver tree in a deceptively beautiful orange and yellow light. The vision penetrated his awareness and as it did he felt an incredible compulsion. He had to put it out. It would ruin the planet! It would lay waste to his people! He wasn't sure how he knew it to be true… he just _did_.

Breaking into a run, he barrelled through the crimson grass toward the rapidly spreading fire. He was at least a half a kilometre away and could see it gobbling up the surrounding vegetation as it's tendrils reached higher and higher into the sky. His feet pushed determinedly against the ground, propelling him forward at a speed he didn't realize he was even capable of.

As he got closer, he was able to make out an unusual shape on the ground a few hundred metres in front of the flames. Not far behind the dark figure the air shimmered with the rising heat of the fire making it difficult to see. As he neared, he was able to make out what it was that was so very close to becoming fuel for the hungry flames. A woman.

Oh Gods! His legs were already pumping faster than he'd imagined he could make them, but seeing that figure huddled before the consuming flames made him move impossibly faster. His own breath was coming in desperate pants now as his respiratory bypass was no longer enough to sustain this speed. His lungs burned and his legs ached with exertion but he didn't slow.

Only a couple hundred metres from the woman now he was able to make her out in more detail. She was small and blonde and… oh god… she was human. He couldn't _see_ it, but he could _feel_ it. He knew it. Just as he _knew_ in his heart that this was Rene. _No… it's your mental version of Rene_, his mind corrected, trying desperately to pull him from believing that what he was seeing was pure truth.

That small voice was immediately squashed out of existence though when her eyes met his. In them he read despair and surrender.

Shouting at the top of his lungs, he called, "RUN! RUN, RENE!" as loudly as he could manage. And just as the words left his lips, his forward movement halted.

Terrified, he looked down. He was still pushing the earth under his feet and his legs were still moving, but he was making no progress. The distance between him and the woman he'd come to care for wasn't being traversed. He was sludging through air as thick as cement even though it felt as light as ever in his lungs. His own wide terrified eyes flew up to meet hers. He was stuck, despite his continued efforts.

A sorrowful, resigned smile found her lips as she watched him pointlessly trying to wade through the stagnant distance between them. "I'm sorry," she said, as if she was standing only feet from him.

"No!" he demanded, "You have to run, Rene! Please!"

"I can't," she said sadly. "You know I can't. I'll never leave you. I don't know how you feel… about me, about… us, but…"

"You know I love you," he said, somehow keeping a fearful tone out of his voice. The tone would've betrayed his true fear for her safety. Fear that she'd choose him over her own well being. He needed to sound confident. He needed her to believe he could be trusted to tell the truth. And what he'd just said… it was the truth. The minute the words left him, he knew without a doubt that he wasn't just saying it to placate her. He loved her. He could feel it so deeply that it ached. And if she knew he was being honest, she would maybe trust him to know what was best for her.

"You… you do?" she said, her eyes filling with tears.

"Of course I do! Rene… I love you. With both my hearts. Now please… _please_... do you trust me?" he entreated.

She gave a small nod, her tears finally spilling down her cheeks.

"Then you have to go. You have to get up and go, Rene. The fire… it's so close to you… it'll end you if you don't listen to me. Do you hear me?" he begged.

Turning, Rene studied the encroaching flames, now only a couple of metres from her. The heat must've been scalding already. He gave his body an added push in a desperate attempt to surge forward again, but the bloody ground beneath him continued it's stubborn resistance as did the air around him. He was helpless to do anything but watch her realize her fate if she didn't get up _right now_.

Turning back to face him, Rene seemed to study his terrified expression before answering. "I won't. I can't… I'm gonna be with you forever," she said, almost wistfully.

"No! You _can_! Please! Leave! RUN!" he begged, nearly whimpering the words even as he shouted them.

But she didn't seem to hear him. She closed her eyes and sat there, looking almost peaceful. This incredible, brave woman just sat there, cross-legged, as the world burned.


	7. Chapter 7

Okay… firstly… I'm sorry. This was the next logical step in the story. Don't hate me.

Secondly… okay, there's no secondly. Just don't hate me.

This is sentence the prompt I used for this chapter -

putthepromptsonpaper - "Her fists hit the wall with all of her pent up rage and desperation"

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 7: Hell<strong>

Rene's stomach was in knots as she sat there, crosslegged by the grating, straining to make out any sounds from Dekker's cell. Occasionally she heard groaned whimpers and at one point, Dekker actually cried out a bit, but other than that there was no indication that anything was happening next door. Her crumbling heart knew better though. She knew the helmet he'd mentioned wasn't simply something innocuous. It was never that. What she didn't know was _what_ exactly it was.

Time seemed to go on and on and with every minute that ticked by she felt more and more frustrated and scared for the man she'd come to care for. If it weren't for the occasional terrified moan she might have thought he'd fallen asleep. She tried calling out for him a few times during the long stretch, but she never received a reply, making her all the more positive he was living his own private hell at the moment.

Frustration gripped her. God! If only she could DO something to help him! Anything! Standing, she started pacing the length of her cell, forcing herself to try to apply the angst and hurt she felt so deeply for him into something more constructive. There had to be a way to get them out of here. These… creatures, they were coming in and out through that door, but so far she'd been unable to save herself from succumbing to the sleeping agent they pumped into her cell every night. If she could only stay awake. If she could even just lay eyes on these creatures… it may give them an edge. Maybe they were physically no threat at all. Maybe they were little green men… no muscles to speak of.

Rene chuckled hollowly. What were the chances of that. Look at the size of the bloody _door_, for God's sake! No… these were very likely sizeable creatures. Alright. Fine. So… if they couldn't be overpowered physically, was there a possibility she might be faster than them? If she could manage to stay awake, maybe she could dart past them and escape?

The devil's advocate in her mind once again reared it's head and shot down her idea as ridiculous. Where would she even run? They would be right behind her and surely they would be able to outrun her if their legs were even a quarter of the length of their entire bodies.

Okay… so running out in full view wouldn't work. Was there a way she could _sneak_ out? Yeah… that might work if they didn't have _eyes_, she admonished herself. Gritting her teeth she fisted her hands to her forehead. Think, damn it!

Next door she heard Dekker let out a particularly loud cry and her heart squeezed tightly. He was going through something terrible in there and it hurt her as if she was experiencing it herself. And she would gladly take it from him if she could. It frustrated her beyond belief that she wasn't able to save him from this pain. She'd never actually laid eyes on him, but she knew now that she'd suffer again for him. She knew what he was. He was selfless. And generous. He cared too much about her and not enough for himself. And she really, really cared for him. And if she was honest with herself, she knew that was all that a person could ever want in a… well, in a friend. Maybe… possibly more? She certainly felt more than she could imagine one would feel for someone you just called a good mate.

For a moment she allowed herself an image of her walking down a sandy beach beside a tall, lean man, their hands entwined… his long slender fingers wrapped around hers. A small niggle of happiness found it's way into her heart with the pleasing image.

It was cut to shreds, however, with a clawing cry from the very man she was currently housing in a make believe scenario in her mind. Anger dragged her hotly from the vestiges of her waking dream and she ran to press herself against his cell wall. The man she'd been bloody _fantasizing_ about only a moment ago was being tortured in some probably hideous way and she was completely powerless to stop it. Her fists hit the wall with all of her pent up rage and desperation. "STOP THIS! Dekker - please stop doing this! They're… they're killing you in there! I know it!" she shouted. Then, looking up at the ceiling she yelled, "Please! Stop hurting him! Take ME! I'll… I'll do anything! Just… please don't kill him," she begged, her last word ending in a mournful sob. Her fists kept hitting the wall with decreasing ferocity until she simply slid down the side of the green barrier and dissolved into tears.

Dekker was completely at their mercy as was she. They were pawns in some ridiculous game that meant everything to their captors but only meant pain and suffering for them.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Days and days and months had gone by, and he knew he was… wait… where was he? Oh yes. The hotel. The hotel with all the rooms.

He'd left the first one… the one where Rene burned, only to find himself facing atrocities he could never have imagined before now. Each nightmare had been housed in it's very own room, and he discovered early on that, just when he'd thought the next room couldn't possibly be any worse or more frightening than the last, the owners of this horrorfest had apparently come up with countless ways to scare the life out of him. To make him sick with terror and grief. He knew that because he'd looked in many of them already, even though he hadn't wanted to. It was as if he was _compelled to_.

Part of him knew it was just that. A manipulation. The hotel managers were insisting on his checking out the accommodations in every suite, and he was powerless to do anything but. So he'd opened every door he'd come to and behind each was another ungodly horror. Beings he realized were called Cybermen, Daleks, Slitheen… they all had their turn with him. But by far the worst rooms housed the woman he'd come to recognize as his visual representation of Rene.

They weren't the worst rooms because of her, of course. In fact, had she been the only occupant in those rooms, this sequence of nightmares would've turned quite nicely to what he was sure would be the best dreams he would ever have. Sadly, though, she was never alone. In each of these horrid rooms he watched her suffer. Suffer for him. Always for him. And always in the most demented and cruel of ways.

He invariably left each room terrified and in tears. With each progressive room he left more confused and frightened than he'd left the one before and now, as he stood before yet another unremarkable looking door, his cheeks still stained with the tears he'd cried over the horrors contained in the last room, he looked longingly to his left. Before him shone the ever present 'EXIT' door. Bold letters labeled it as such and even as his hand wrapped around the next room's door handle his stomach twisted. It would be so easy. He could just… leave. It was there. Right. There. All he had to do was let go of this handle and take a couple steps across the hall. The door stood proudly before him, practically begging him to take what it was offering. Sanity. Freedom from this perpetual terror and unending horror. It would be so easy. It would be over.

Hesitantly, he pulled his hand back from the knob of the next door in a long, long line of yet sealed rooms. He knew there was a reason he mustn't leave. There was a reason he had to continue to endure what he knew was actually hell rather than a hotel of any sort. There had to be a reason, right? Why else would he be doing this? Why would he be putting himself through this?

Suddenly, beside the exit door a window appeared. Drawn to it, he stepped forward and peered through the glass. On the other side, Rene paced the length of a dark green room, her hands fisted to her forehead in apparent frustration. Oh my god! Rene! He'd… he'd forgotten about her. How could he have? He tried to call out for her but only a feral sort of scream resulted. The sound he'd issued startled and surprised him… he'd actually tried to call her name. The effect of his cry on Rene, though, was instant. Flying to the wall of her cell, she banged her small fists against it and called for an end to his pain. She begged him to stop… she begged him to save himself. It was her next words, though, that really shook him. "Take ME! I'll… I'll do anything! Just… please don't kill him," she begged, dissolving into tears. He watched as she slid down the wall into a sobbing heap.

"No! Don't take her instead!" he shouted, fear flying through him with the thought. "Don't you _dare_!" he warned, his resolve once again fortified. One last look at the incredible woman on the other side of the glass was enough to give him the added strength he needed to step back. To once again take up the fight. He couldn't give up. He couldn't let her suffer. He wouldn't. Turning purposefully to the next door, he grabbed the handle and turned it. He'd made his choice. If this was his life now, he'd might as well face it. Stepping forward, he entered the darkened room and said hello to a fresh hell.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Rene's tears had run out and she sat stoically against the wall knowing that on the other side, the man she lo-... she cared for… was experiencing an agony she couldn't even imagine at the moment. Dekker's cries and whimpers had continued over the last hours, but the last ten minutes or so had been quiet, making her worry even more if that was possible. At least when he'd been making sounds, she knew he was conscious. He was alive. Now, though… no. She couldn't think that way. He had to be alright. The alternative wasn't something she wanted to imagine. She needed him.

Outside her cell she heard the shuffled movement of their captors. They hadn't been fed yet today, and it had been many hours since they'd woken. It was probably just food dispensing time, but a part of her worried they were really wandering the halls for a much more sinister reason.

All her fears were realized when she heard another cell door opening. Dekker's door. Dashing to the grating she pressed her ear to it. Muffled voices reached her ear, but she wasn't able to make any sense of them. From the intonation alone, she thought they maybe sounded a bit incredulous, but who knew what these aliens _normally_ sounded like.

After only a couple of minutes, she thought she heard the voices retreating and then she heard the door open again. They were leaving. Was he dead? "Hello?!" she shouted. The door slammed shut again and shuffling steps once again resumed in the hallway. They were gone.

Once again listening intently through the vent, no noises met her ears. Had they taken him? "Dekker?" she called through the metal mesh of the vent cover. Silence. "Dekker… are you there?" she asked, her voice tight with emotion.

A moan met her ears this time and a rush of relief flowed through her. He was still there and he was alive. Tears pushed over the rims of her eyes without her awareness. All she could think about was how grateful she was that he was apparently breathing and with her. Trying again, she called more softly this time, "Dekker? Are you alright?"

Honestly she didn't expect a response, so when she got one, that was enough of a surprise. What was more alarming, however, was his answer.

"They killed you," he choked, a hiccup of emotion taking his voice at the end. Sobs followed.

Oh my god! What had they done to him?!

"They killed you, Rene… I… I couldn't stop it. I tried! I did! It… it didn't matter what I did, though… every… each time…" he trailed off, anguished sobs replacing his voice.

"Dekker… Dekker… I'm okay! I'm alright… I'm not hurt. They didn't hurt me," she tried to assure him.

"They _did_, though! You… you begged me… and I _tried_ to save you… each time I tried… but I couldn't!" he argued through an emotion constricted throat. "And now… now you're…"

"I'm _here_!" she nearly shouted at him. She had to get through to him. Whatever he'd experienced had been horrendous and it somehow involved her. He needed… he _had_ to know she was really with him. Here. Now. "Dekker… come to the grating. Come on," she encouraged. After a moment she heard movement. "Good… now reach into the vent, yeah?" Sticking her fingers as far into the grating as she could, she waited.

"But… last time… your hand… they… they... " he trailed off, anxiety practically rolling off of him in waves.

Her very heart tore into small pieces with his words. That helmet… it must have induced hallucinations. He'd been living true horrors for the last many many hours and at least some of them must have included her, she gathered, and they must've been pretty gruesome. "Dekker… it wasn't real. All of that wasn't real," she said as calmly and as soothingly as she could manage.

"That's what you said last time before… before they… before you..." his voice trembled as he trailed off.

"It's alright now... I promise I'm okay. Please… reach up for me, yeah? Please," she entreated.

After a moment, she felt his fingertips graze hers and she heard a hissed breath escape him. "It's alright, yeah? Keep going," she said gently.

His fingers furthered their journey and finally found their way to wrap around hers tightly through the metal mesh. Gripping his hand as best as she could manage through the vent cover, she whispered, "You see? I'm fine. This is real," she assured him.

"Is… is it really you?" he asked tentatively, his voice a near whisper.

"Yeah," she breathed, tears reemerging in her own eyes. "It's really me. God, Dekker… I was so worried for you," she shared, unable to stop herself from moving her face to rub her cheek against the skin of his fingers. His fingers splayed with the contact and he tried to move them gently to touch her face further. Smiling softly, she kept her face close and let him move his fingertips along her eyelids and down to her jawline. It was awkward, and she had to move to allow him to really feel her, but she knew he needed it. He needed to believe she was really her. That she was really alive and alright.

"Rene?" he finally said in a near whisper.

"Uh huh?" she said softly back.

"You're beautiful," he said almost reverently.

An entire field of butterflies took flight in her stomach with his words. "So are you," she smiled, still allowing him to play his fingertips over her face. Turning a small bit, she pressed a kiss to the top of his knuckle and leaned into it afterward with the swell of her cheek.

They sat like that for a good while before either of them moved. It was a reaffirmation of their continued existence. Both of the them were still alive. It was more than she'd imagined they would be even only hours before.

Both of their meals were delivered not long after their reunion, but neither of them moved. To separate seemed not only uncomfortable, but possibly foolhardy. Not that they could stop whatever happened next, but somehow, holding hands felt as close to secure as she knew they would feel in this place. With his hand in hers she knew he was alright. She knew he wasn't being hurt. And right now, she was very reluctant to let go just in case. After what he'd just been through, she knew she wasn't just holding on for her own sake either. He needed her now. They'd pushed him beyond what any living thing should have to live through, and frankly, she wondered if the 'larger' experiment might be to see how long it would take before one of them went mad. At this rate, it wouldn't be long.


	8. Chapter 8

Alright… I have to give credit to Marina for the direction of this next couple of chapters. It's all thanks to her comment on 'Teaspoon' for Chapter 1, and her devilish ideas got me thinking…

Once again, there are two chapter prompts. I come across these brilliant lines and get excited at working them in :) Here they are:

putthepromptsonpaper:

"You're hardly a nightmare"

putthepromptsonpaper:

"I want you to make me feel like you can see me. I want to feel like I'm alive"

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 8: Arousal<strong>

Rene woke in the morning to find her hand still wrapped around Dekker's fingers. His muscles were slack and she could swear she heard a little snore issuing through the vent. Her lips quirked in a small smile as her heart squeezed with affection. This incredible man was still here with her, his arm undoubtedly cramped beyond belief after being wedged in a wall all night. The poor bloke. Despite the fact she was so grateful for his presence, she wished he were anywhere but here. Someone like him should never have to suffer what they were being put through. For that matter, neither should she.

Gently she played her thumb over the skin of his knuckles. He'd been so frightened to reach for her last night after whatever hell he'd witnessed. She shuddered even thinking about it. '_Last time… your hand… they… they...'_ What in the universe had they made him live through? All so that she wouldn't have to suffer. This mad alien had put himself through all that just to save her pain. The thought made her both furious and desperately protective at the same time. She was furious with these so called 'sentient' beings who were taking it upon themselves to mess with their lives. The protectiveness… she wished she could just hold him to her and keep him safe. Protect him from these monsters. From anything that could ever hurt him. She longed to swaddle him in her arms and never let go.

Turning her head, she pressed a light but lingering kiss to one of his fingers. She didn't want to wake him, but somehow, she felt compelled to demonstrate her appreciation and affection for him, even if he wasn't awake to feel it. If he had been… well, that would've been alright too. She cared for him. More than that, if she was honest… she loved him. Who cared what the motivation was at this point? Romantic, brotherly, best mates… did it really matter? This man had saved her life already. She knew it. If he hadn't put himself in harm's way, there was a good chance she'd probably be gone already, having moved on from this existence. But she was still alive, and it was because of him. Of course she loved him. He was her saviour.

Sighing contentedly, letting herself bask in the warmth of the affection she felt for him, she lay still for a while longer with her cheek pressed against his cool skin. It was only a good while later, when she could no longer deny the insistent need to empty her bladder, that she finally admitted defeat. She was loathe to move away from him… ever… but sadly, duty called.

Extricating her hand as gently as she could, she finally stood and stretched, feeling her tense and aching muscles thank her as she did. Sleeping on the floor didn't do wonders for her back and the tension from the trials of the past days were locked in tight knots running up and down her the sides of her spine. Digging her thumbs into the muscles of her lower back, she took a deep breath.

Mmm. Was that…? No. God… _she_ was hallucinating now. She could swear she was smelling… blimey! Was that _baking bread_? Taking another tentative sniff of the air she thought maybe…

… But no. Why the hell would these bastards treat them to anything good?

Brushing the idea away, she toddled over to the 'loo' and dropped her scrub trousers. Letting herself go, she wondered idly if their captors planned on feeding them this morning. That smell had reminded her of food, making her stomach rumble. The very fact that she hadn't bothered eating yesterday at all wasn't helping matters.

With the ache in her bladder dealt with, she stood again and pulled her bottoms up. That's when she noticed that the smell had gotten a bit stronger. Taking in a purposeful breath, she realized it was a sort of a cross between freshly baked bread and honeysuckle. But… what was it? The odour itself brought on two very distinct feelings. It made her hungry, but it also sent a chill through her. Nothing was good in this place. Even smells. And anything that _appeared_ to be good in this god forsaken laboratory was sure to be exactly the opposite.

She should tell Dekker. She should alert him. She hesitated for a moment, though. After the horror he'd been through, he needed rest and if he was still sleeping it was that much less time he had to endure this place. Another part of her knew, though, that she'd better rouse him. Maybe this same smell was filling his room as well, and since he seemed to be able to tell what things were by smelling or tasting them… he might know what their captors were up to.

Moving to the grating, she lay beside it to call Dekker softly and take his fingers in hers once again. His very physical presence instantly sent a wave of calm through her and she once again was so thankful for him. "Dekker," she called lightly. "Dekker… wake up," she beckoned gently.

Under her fingers she felt his move as he stirred to wakefulness. "Hmmm?" she heard him sigh, obviously still half asleep.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," she said, a small smile finding her lips despite her reason for rousing him. He actually sounded quite adorable. She imagined her self-professed tall, slim roommate with a head of sleep tousled hair and lidded eyes.

"'M awake," he said sleepily.

"Yeah, right," she smiled. "I, er… I honestly didn't want to wake you… being asleep is about the only escape from this nightmare," she said, apologizing for interrupting his respite.

"You're hardly a nightmare," he replied, his voice gentle as his fingers closed around hers. Again, a warmth filled her, making her stomach flutter and she grinned despite everything.

"Well, I'm glad to hear I don't qualify as nightmare material, but you can't really deny that this place would win 'The Worst Dream' contest if there was such a thing," she cajoled. "Anyway, I was… well, there's an odd smell in my room. And I would've let you sleep more, but… do you smell something on your side?" she asked, trying to keep it light so as not to alarm him more than necessary.

There was a silent pause and his grip on her fingers increased. After a moment he said, "No… nothing unusual in here," he affirmed. "Hang on, though," he said, sounding closer. Rene thought she maybe heard him sniffing through the vent and not a moment later, he smacked his lips. "There's something…" he trailed off for a moment before continuing, "I can detect a new substance, but it's too weak for me to really make out. What does it smell like?" he asked, sounding concerned.

"Umm, well, it sort of smells like flowers a bit. Honeysuckle. And… I know this sounds barmy… but it smells a bit like a bakery in the mornin'. Like bakin' pastries or bread," she added.

"Hmmm…" she heard him hum. "I can't think of anything toxic that might smell like that," he shared. "I wish I could think more clearly… there's something familiar about the description but I can't think why," he said, sounding a bit frustrated. "It's the bloody soporific they're plying us with at night… its messing up my neurotransmitters," he said as an aside.

"Well… hopefully it's nothing too bad," she said, knowing the likelihood of that was spectacularly low.

"Yeah," she heard Dekker agree half-heartedly. He was as worried about this new development as she was.

Outside their rooms, the familiar shuffle of their captors played through the doors. "Oh thank God," Rene realized she'd said aloud. She really was famished after not eating at all yesterday.

A tray was shoved through the hole in the bottom of the door once again and she stood to move to it. The delicious fragrance she'd noticed earlier was now one hundred times more potent and it filled her nose on standing, making her almost dizzy. Quite against her own better judgement, she took a second deep breath of the enticing smell and closed her eyes as her body savoured it.

That's when it hit her. Whatever chemicals they were filling her cell with… they smelled like that because they _wanted_ her to breathe it in on purpose. And now that she'd had a couple of brilliant breaths of it, she found herself longing for more. Once again, her body made it's own decision to pull in more of the incredibly intoxicating air and with it a sort of… longing unfolded within her. It was difficult to put her finger on what sort of longing it was, but there was no doubt that it was real.

"Rene?" she heard Dekker say through the vent. "You alright?"

"Mmmmm," was all she could muster in response. Throwing her head back and closing her eyes, she breathed in the smell enveloping her, now not really caring about what effect it might be having. It was all she wanted.

"Rene…" Dekker's voice floated over her and somewhere in the back of her mind she realized he sounded very concerned.

She wanted to answer right then, but that's when a very deep seated need pulled at her awareness. His voice. God she loved his voice. Suddenly she knew she needed to hear it again.

"Dekker..." she muttered, realizing it sounded a lot less like a call than a moan.

"Rene… talk to me! What's happening in there?" His gorgeous tenor voice spilled over her as she stood, his words feeling almost like hands caressing her. "Are you feeling alright? Are you disoriented?" she heard him say, her eyes still closed as she now vividly imagined his hands roaming over her as she continued to take deep gulps of the delicious air surrounding her.

"I'm… I'm…" she trailed off, now very aware of the throb in her lower abdomen and the moisture in her knickers. "I'm…" she tried again, but she suddenly found herself quite unable to think of anything but the growing _need_ she felt for… him.

"Oh my Gods," she heard Dekker's sexy voice say in alarm. Alarm? She didn't want him to be alarmed. Not unless it was because she was pulling her clothes off for him…

"I know what it is," he continued, presumably thinking she was actually listening to any of the content of his message. She wasn't. All she was thinking of was his voice talking… his hands roaming… his panted breaths as she rode him…

"It's an aphrodisiac, Rene! They're drugging you with it," she heard him drawl sexily. Then, for a moment, her thoughts cleared and alarm bells pushed through the haze of need. An aphrodisiac. Oh my God! But… what for? Why would they… Oh God. Oh god, ohgod, ohgod…

"Dekker!" she shouted, running to the wall to curl up beside the vent. They were going to rape her, weren't they? They wanted her to _want_ it! "Oh goooooooood," she fretted, "Why?! What are they going to do?!" she demanded, fear laced through her voice.

"I don't know, but I'm not leaving you, okay?" he assured her.

"You promise?" she asked, now feeling beyond panicky. "Please don't leave me," she begged. "Even if they… they try something, okay? Don't leave?" she reiterated, adrenaline coursing through her.

"I won't. I promise," he said surely.

His promise reassured her a bit but didn't lessen the once again growing _need_ in her body for closeness. For relief. That very thought sent a zing of desire straight through to her core. Pulsating, all consuming _relief_ was what she wanted. _Needed_. A vision of her one desire… of Dekker… walking in that massive door, staring at her as if she was the finest, most exquisite thing in the universe...

Before she even realized what she was doing, one of her hands was trailing down and under the band of her trousers to find the apex of her thighs...

… and a soul searing scream filled the air around her. Agony danced in the seemingly neverending wail, making her cry out herself. Dekker's pain echoed through the cells to surround her. "NO!" she yelled. "STOP!"

And it did. Dekker's pained cries morphed into whimpers and deep gulping breaths, which Rene realized she was imitating in empathy. "Dekker!" she shouted, the haze of desire still lingering in the background, but overshadowed by her fear for him at the moment.

"I'm… I'm here. I'm okay," he panted.

"Oh, God… I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Dekker!" she apologized, tears prickling in her eyes. She should've known this would've been the entire point of the exercise. Create a need and then deny the remedy. It seemed to be the overriding theme of this hell they were living.

"It's not your fault," he assured her. An awkward silence followed. "Did… what was it that set it off this time," he asked, clearly trying not to sound uncomfortable with the inevitable personal topic.

"I, er… I, uh, touched myself," she said, a mad blush spreading across her face and chest.

"Ohhhh," he replied, his voice low. An agonizing moment passed with Rene's mind warring between desperately wishing she could crawl in a hole somewhere and desperately wanting him to say 'Ohhhh' again in that bloody _gorgeous_ voice. A large sigh startled her back into reality. "I… I suppose it makes sense, really," he said, sounding rather resigned but almost clinical at the same time. God… when had 'clinical' become so damn sexy? "I mean… they're trying to find out if there is a breaking point for human altruism. They're going through all the basic human experiences, right? They've tested tested pain tolerance, thirst tolerance, fear tolerance, and now they're going for arousal tolerance," he concluded.

If his blasted voice wasn't so friggin' distracting she might have even understood what he'd said. As it was, she was having a difficult time not imagining him hovering on top of her, playing soft kisses down her neck as he mumbled in that foxy voice…

"... so I'll completely understand. The strength of it must be enormous if I can make it out so clearly from in here. It… it'll probably hurt… you know… after a while, if you deny your, erm… needs. In fact… I bet you're already uncomfortable," he observed. What? The thinking part of her mind startled into awareness. He knew she was uncomfortable? Did he have some magic arousal metre? How did he know?

A little chuckle wafted through the vent and Rene realized to her horror that she'd spoken out loud. "No… it's not really _magic_, per se. More… superior nasal receptors, actually. I can sort of… well, that's to say… I definitely _can_ smell pheromones. In the air. When they're excreted through the skin and, um… other places," he ended, obviously uncomfortably.

Rene blinked. He could _smell her_? Oh God! She _definitely_ wanted to curl up and die now. There was no way she could hide her current… predicament… from him. He knew. Oh god. At least he couldn't read her mind. Now _that_ would be, well… then again… it could be rather fun, really…

Dekker cleared his throat. Jesus. Had it happened again? "I said that out loud, didn't I?" she asked, squeezing her eyes tightly shut against his likely answer.

"Uh, maybe?" he answered, a bit of a smile in his voice.

"Oh GOD!" she lamented, fisting her hands in front of her face. Really she didn't know why she was hiding from. It wasn't like he could see her, after all. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry," she began.

"Rene… it's fine, really," he assured her. "You can't help it… please don't beat yourself up. You have no control in this. That's why… that's why you need to fix it," he finished, sounding decidedly sympathetic.

"Fix it?" she asked, confused.

"You know… _fix it_," he repeated. "Um… find relief. It's only going to get worse," he concluded kindly.

Her hazy head cleared for a moment. "What?!" she balked incredulously. "First of all, I'm not wankin' in front of these bloody sick creatures. Second, and most importantly, they'll hurt you again if I do! That's hardly worth a good wank in my books," she said decidedly.

"Rene…" he said, his voice carrying that warning tone she was beginning to recognize.

"No 'Rene' nothin'. I'm not gonna… do that. So drop it, yeah? Besides… it's not like a person can die from abstinence, right?" she finished.

"Weellll… not _technically_, I suppose, but…"

"Then that's that," she concluded. "Done. I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I'll just… sit on my hands or somethin' in here."

A little exhale of frustration found her ears making her inexplicably aroused. Oh, for… this bloody aphrodisiac was strong!

"Well… fine. I suppose it's up to you, but I want you to know that I'd be happier if you just… did it. I mean that," he made sure to add.

The thought of him encouraging such behaviour made her insides knot instantly with want. An image of him entering her cell, watching as she slowly removed the scrubs to drop them on the floor at her feet filled her mind. His eyes would be hazed and hooded with want for her and he'd move in quickly to touch her...

"...so for now, if you're insisting on this, I think that would be best, don't you?" she heard him say. It seemed to her that whatever he'd said had ended in an upward inflection, indicating that he'd asked a question.

"Oh.. uh huh. Yup," she agreed, not knowing what she was agreeing to to but hoping against hope that it would encourage him to keep talking so his silky voice would keep enveloping her.

"Alright," he said, sighing. Through the wall she thought she heard him getting up and moving away.

"Oi! Where are you goin'?" she asked, fear once again creeping into her and pushing the desire back a bit.

She could hear him approach the grating again. "You agreed that I should probably leave you alone for a bit… just… well, the drug is seeping through the vent a bit now and if it affects me too… my pheromones are already elevated… and well, I don't want to, you know… make it worse for you by, uh… making noise, or, um, _whatever_ over here," he concluded awkwardly.

"Oh. Right," she said, the words actually sinking in this time. He was trying to make it easier for her. Wait. Did he say… "Hang on. Your pheromones… did you just say they were already, um… you know…_elevated_?" she finished, suddenly realizing she should probably be embarrassed by the double meaning of that last word but now not really caring. The content of his message was now filling her mind.

Dekker cleared his throat a bit. "I, uh… well, that's to say… you're very, um… important. To me. And, I suppose, if it helps… if it makes you feel less uncomfortable with this whole thing… I can't help but wonder what we might be like. You know… together," he said, a tiny bit of shyness creeping into his voice. Rene's heart leapt into her throat. "That's to say… I mean… not that you would _normally_ feel that way about _me_, but I thought it might make you feel less… alone. Knowing you're not the only one that, you know, feels a bit… attracted," he finished, sounding very out of his element.

His last words struck her in a very deep and encompassing way, making her suck in a breath and release it with an unabashed prolonged moan.

"Oh, Gods… I'm sorry Rene. I'll… I'll just move now…" she thought she heard him say, the dulcet tones of his voice once again filling her with want. Her mind immediately filled with newly formed visions of him kneeling between her legs... his head nestled between her thighs which she'd spread a bit for him. His hands gently prying her legs further apart to allow him better access to her sex…

Her breathing had quickened and her heart was racing, but that's not what startled her back to reality. She had felt her hand begin its journey south again of its own accord, and the movement triggered the sudden memory of Dekker's cries. Her hand flew away from her body as if it were on fire. She mustn't. She couldn't… do that.

"Oh, God…" she moaned. This was going to be a LONG day. Hmmm. Long. Looooong. Her lids closed and behind them played images of Dekker's _longness_ pushing at her entrance as she moaned in satisfaction at the impending intrusion. God, she _wanted him_. It was like she was _made_ to want him. In a larger cosmic plan it was meant to be. Never mind that they had met under about the worst circumstances imaginable. That wasn't the point. The point was that she had been _pulled_ to him from the moment she heard his voice. She was his. And if she had anything to say about it, he would be hers. In every possible position and in every possible location.

Ideas of various enticing positions flitted through her mind making her squeeze her legs together in want. God. How was she NOT going to touch herself? She needed a plan, otherwise what had happened earlier might happen again and she knew she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if it did. The idea that she might torture him because she'd not been able to stop from wanking made her cringe.

But… how? The fantasies she was having were almost overwhelming, and physically… well, she had to admit it was becoming beyond uncomfortable. Deciding that she had little choice, she looked down at her trousers. Bending over to catch a sliver of the fabric just below her knee in her teeth, she pulled at it, creating a small tear. Inserting her fingers into the hole… fingers into the hole… Ohhhhhh…

_No! Concentrate!_ she admonished herself. She pulled on either side of the hole and managed to create a long tear down the front of the scrubs. Biting a similar hole a couple of inches over from the first, she managed to tear a full strip of fabric from the trousers, leaving them flapping open on her leg from her knee to the bottom hem. A thrill of triumph engulfed her. HA! Holding up the long strip of fabric, she considered what she was going to do with it.

Ohhhh… the things she could do with it… with _him_...

_No! For God's sake, Rene! Get a grip!_

Trying again to focus, she created an empty circle with the fabric and tied it loosely. Pushing her hands through it, she held one end of the strip in her closed fist and used her teeth to grab the other end and pull the tie taught. It took effort, but somehow, then, she managed to tie it again to create a tight knot around her wrists.

Looking down at her bound hands, she grinned goofily. FUCK YOU, BASTARDS! she mentally cheered. It occurred to her then, though, that even though her hands were tied, they were still perilously close to where she might use them to find relief.

She knew how to fix that. Sitting on her bottom, she pulled her knees up to her chin and wriggled her feet through her encircled arms. It was relatively easy, actually. She wondered for a moment if she'd ever been a gymnast. She seemed to be double jointed.

That very idea made a few more ideas float through her mind and the subject of positions once again became prominent.

A pulsing ache once again distracted her from reality as the image of Dekker kneeling naked behind her made her moan. Her arse was in the air and her cheek was pressed against the floor, her breathing coming in excited pants as she waited for him to take her. Her hands were bound and he took full advantage of the fact, wrapping the fabric in his fist and pulling back, making her torso pull up from the floor as he pushed his length inside her from behind. A needy moan issued from her as she felt him stretch her inner walls and the sound of his hissed breath in assured her he was enjoying this as much as she was. Her shoulders burned with the pull from his grip on her restraints but instead of being uncomfortable, it made her arousal climb to levels she hadn't thought imaginable. With each forceful thrust of his hips and each blessed moan from his lips she felt herself nearing release. From somewhere outside herself she heard her own needy voice shouting his name as she edged closer and closer...

But… but… she couldn't. She wanted to. Dear, blessed God… she wanted to let herself go. She wanted to give in to the aching, insistent and frankly painful need for release. She had to!

_NO!_ something inside her shouted through her lust dazed mind. _You'll kill him!_

It was like a bucket of ice water had been thrown on her. The heated image of Dekker grunting and shouting lust addled profanities was instantly replaced by memories of his agonizing screams.

Opening her eyes, she realized she'd turned herself over and must have been pushing her pelvis fruitlessly against the cold floor in search of relief. A sad whimper escaped her. How long had she been like this? Lying on the floor, her hands tied behind her back?

"You tied your hands behind your back?" she heard Dekker ask, his voice incredulous.

Oh God. She'd said that out loud again. This drug… it must be some sort of… de-inhibitor or something. "Um, yeah," she admitted, her voice small.

Dekker cleared his throat softly. "Uh, well, since we last talked it's been six and a half hours," he said, worry strewn through his voice. "I was going to say something earlier, but I, uh, thought it best if I was just… quiet," he finished, obviously not wanting to elaborate.

"Oh God," she said, shame filling her. She'd probably been moaning and making all sorts of interesting noises in here.

"Hey… it's okay," he said softly. "It's sort of… unavoidable, really, given what they're pumping into your cell," he said, his fuckin' gorgeous voice making her warm once again. Ohhhh… and that silky voice just said 'pumping'... "I, uh… I tried to keep my distance to give you some privacy," he added, his words actually sinking in and reminding her what it was they were actually talking about.

"Oh. Thanks," she replied, once again aware of the immense embarrassment she felt about this entire situation.

Still lying cheek to the ground, Rene tried to pry her mind away from the now painfully erect bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs. Somehow thinking of her anatomy like that helped her to see it more clinically and less like it was a soul aching NEED that had to be fulfilled, lest she die because of it. Was there a female equivalent of blue balls? She wasn't sure, but she WAS sure that she was about to experience it if there was.

"Dekker," she said reluctantly, knowing she was about to go where she'd not imagined she'd be verbally going with him, "Is there… is there anything I can, uh… _do_ about, um… my predicament, do you think?" A big part of her inwardly cringed at the fact she'd asked such a forward question. On the other hand, though, her 'situation' was beginning to feel beyond uncomfortable. And in for a penny… "I mean, I can't… they won't let me, uh… _wank_," she said with deep embarrassment, "... but, um… do you think… oh God…" she trailed off, not even sure what she was asking him.

Dekker cleared his throat. "Uh… do you mean, is there another way to find relief without, er… touching yourself?" he asked without a hint of judgement in his voice.

Emotional relief (sadly not physical relief…) filtered through her. He was so wonderful, this man. He was doing everything he could to try to make her feel less uncomfortable in what was obviously a very uncomfortable situation. She just wished she could be made even more comfortable by him… maybe with his tongue? His probing fingers?

"Rene?" his voice floated over her. Oh! Right!

"Uh… yeah. Sorry. Um… what were we talking about?"

"You were wondering if there was something else that could be done to, uh… make you more comfortable," he shared.

"Oh yeah," she said aloud, suddenly recalling the gist of their conversation.

"I think… well, I might know a way. Our captors will obviously punish you for, uh… touching yourself, and they'd probably do the same if you found some other way to stimulate yourself… but what if there was a way to help you find relief without them knowing?" he suggested.

Rene's brows furrowed. "But… how can I just… go there… without, you know… helping myself?" she asked, truly not understanding his suggestion.

"I mean… uh, well, Time Lords… we have this ability to… well, we're touch telepaths. I could… you know, if you wanted… I could, um…_help you_ while keeping your body from moving. If your body finds release, the chemicals in the air have to begin their work on you all over again. It's like a reset. It would at least save you from, uh… the discomfort you're going through for a while," he said lightly, as if discussing the weather.

"But… wouldn't you have to, like… be here with me?" she asked, the idea of him standing in front of her calling up fresh waves of arousal. She had to bite her lip to stop a heated gasp from escaping her with the image of him, shirtless and sweaty, cupping her face as he...

"No… if you lay next to the vent I could just touch you through the grating and it would only take a minute to adjust your motor neurons so they don't react to the… uh, stimulus. Basically, your body won't move while you, uh… release… so our captors shouldn't be any the wiser," he shared.

"Okay, but… how do I… I mean… I don't know if I can, uh…" she trailed off.

"Oh. Well, I could sort of 'tweak' your receptors so your mind thinks you're actually experiencing the sensations you're thinking about," he suggested. As if sensing her reticence, he assured her, "I promise I'll be gentle and I won't look at anything. Not that I could anyway… they have everything important blocked off with their bloody memory killing drug," he muttered frustratedly.

A wave of gratitude flowed through her on hearing his offer, and yet, at the same time, she shuddered. Having someone else rummaging around in your thoughts… it wasn't right. He was generously offering her a way out of her discomfort, though… a fact she didn't take lightly, and honestly… she didn't think she could refuse, even if she wanted to. Right now she felt as if her whole body was almost stinging… vibrating with need. It certainly wouldn't take much to push her over the edge. And if he was right, she'd feel better right away. At least for a while.

"Yeah," she heard herself say. "Alright… thank-you," she said, meaning it more than she could put into actual words.

A gentle voice replied, "I'm glad I can be of service." Immediately her mind conjured an alarmingly vivid image of him literally 'servicing' her… his face buried in her crotch, lapping fervently as she writhed under him while she mewled loudly.

"Rene?" Dekker's soft voice pulled her from her fantasy. A whimper escaped her at its abrupt ending. "You'll need to come over here," he directed.

Following his voice, she moved to place her head near the vent. "Can you, um… turn so your back and head are against the wall? Make sure I can reach your temple," he instructed.

Doing as she was told, she turned and nestled herself against the wall, turning her head slightly so he could more easily touch her. With the contact of his fingers to her skin, she thought she might just come right then. His fingers felt like they had a direct connection to her very core and a brilliant sharp desire made her suck a deep breath in.

"You okay?" he asked, probably hearing her hissed breath.

"Yeah… 'M fine. Just… can we do this?" she heard her voice beg.

"Right. Yes," he agreed. "Now close your eyes," he instructed.

"Okay… but, Dekker…I'm scared I won't be able to, um… _do it_. On my own, I mean," she said bravely. "I'm scared I'll feel sort of… dead, you know? Not being able to move? What if I can't, uh, _climax_?" she worried, almost whispering the last word in embarrassment.

"Well," Dekker said contemplatively, "I was thinking I could sort of… talk you through it? Your mind will think you're physically experiencing what you're thinking about, so I'll just make sure you're thinking about it," he suggested.

Rene's lust befuddled mind went into creative overdrive with the comment. As much as her rational mind balked at the idea, her very needy body almost did a cartwheel in anticipation and it translated the fervent desire into a very audible moan. "Ooooohhhh… please, Dekker… I want you to make me feel like you can see me, okay? I want to feel like I'm alive." She heard how incredibly needy she sounded and it made her cringe… at least until she heard his reply.

"Oh, I swear, Rene… I'm going to make you feel very much alive. And I realize this sounds more than inappropriate, but with the aphrodisiac filtering through the vent, I'm feeling very _very_ sympathetic to your plight right now. I honestly don't think I'll be able to help but come along with you for the ride," he assured her.

That one comment nearly pushed her over the edge right there. She wanted NOTHING more than to reach into her trousers and bring herself to climax, consequences be damned. Thank God, though, she still had _some_ rational mind left to remind her what the consequences actually were. It also didn't hurt that, if her rational mind completely gave up, she still had her hands tied behind her back.

"Now… close your eyes, alright?" he suggested, once again pressing the tips of his fingers to her temple.

Doing as he instructed, she allowed her lids to close and took a deep steadying breath. It wasn't long before she felt something. A… nudge, and then a little sort of…muted 'pop', as if something had gently pierced a soap bubble in her head. Then her mind felt warm and comfort filled her. It certainly didn't stop the longing ache her body was experiencing, but it helped her push it aside a bit. Tendrils of Dekker's mind reached into hers and it was the most brilliant feeling. Like she was receiving the equivalent of a mental hug, but definitely more intimate. More intense. It was… incredible.

It felt like time was stretching out before her, as if she had been here, experiencing this with him for hours. But before long, he was retreating from her mind and the real experience began.


	9. Chapter 9

Thank-you all so much for reading and commenting. For some reason a number of you seemed to think I've reached an all time high level of 'evilhood' with that last cliffie and I've therefore been crowned an '_Evil Devious Diabolical Beastie'. _ I was even figuratively 'pelted with pillows' as punishment! I'm truly honoured!

Now, down to business…

Chapter sentence prompt:

"If it helps, I can make it sound a little more dramatic"

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 9: Faking it<strong>

Rene lay motionless beside the grating of the vent, her body still. Tentatively, she tried to move her arm. Nothing. She tried to speak. Again… nothing.

So he hadn't been exaggerating. She really couldn't move.

She couldn't move. Oh God. She couldn't make a sound… what if something happened in the room? What if she _had_ to move!

"I should've told you before we started… I can either go back into your mind to allow you to move, or twenty minutes will go by… whichever happens first, okay? So… just take a breath… you can do that. Try to relax," he instructed.

God… it was like he could read her mind.

"Take a deep breath and let it out slowly," he directed.

She did as he suggested and felt her body release at least some of the anxious tension she'd been carrying. His velvet voice was soothing her, even as his words did the same. She didn't need to panic. She'd be able to move again. She just needed to let this happen. And God, even though she was statue still, her body was still coiled tightly in arousal. Unable to squeeze her thighs together in an effort to gain some relief, though, she experienced the ache with rising anxiety. How was this gonna work? At least when she could move she could give herself a _bit_ of stimulation. Right now, she was just sort of… stuck. What if this didn't work? What if she _didn't_ respond just to words? She'd be stuck like this!

Dekker cleared his throat lightly on the other side of the wall. "I want you to just listen to my voice, Rene. Listen to what I'm saying and imagine it as clearly as you can," he began.

Her mental panic ebbed for a moment. She could do this.

"I guess, I'll start by telling you that when I first heard your voice… I have to admit… I was captivated," he shared. "I've wished since the beginning that we'd been put in the same cell because, on top of having a beautiful voice, you emit the most… _intoxicating_ fragrance, Rene. I could smell you, you know," he added darkly, sending sparks of fiery arousal through her body. "From the moment you first came close to the vent. You're a mix between… the smell of a crisp fall day in the woods and pure attraction."

Even though she truly wondered at the truth of his comment (how could she _possibly_ smell anything close to _good_ right now?), she couldn't help but feel all the aroused tension in her body ramp up yet another notch with Dekker's admission.

She thought she heard movement on his side, and then his voice seemed even closer than before. "And I've had… dreams… Rene. About you," he offered, the tone of his voice more intimate, making her skin prickle. "In one of them, the wall between us simply comes down and then suddenly, we're not here anymore in this horrid place. We're in a warm comfortable bedroom and everything about it is incredible. The room is… alive somehow. And you're sitting in the middle of a large, plush bed, and I can't take my eyes off of your beautiful face. Your smile… your lips… and then I realize…" he paused for a moment, "I realize your scrubs are gone," he breathed almost reverently. "You're… Gods, Rene… you're naked. You're gloriously naked," he described darkly, obviously being drawn into the story himself now. "And I'm… aghast. You're perfect. Your breasts… your creamy skin… everything about you. I stand there for a moment, just… speechless but I don't flounder for long. There's too much to do. Too much of you to experience," he recounted huskily before continuing. "I climb across the bed and you smile at me... your golden hair cascading around your shoulders… and all I can think about is how much I want to press myself against you. How much I want," he paused, "... I want to be inside you."

The shot of need that bolted through her nearly undid her right there. The longing she'd been feeling pushed through her veins with unparalleled intensity, making her ache as his words hit home. This was it. This would work. She could feel it. But she had to give herself over to it. Really let it happen in her mind. Trying to empty her thoughts of anything but Dekker's words, she let them wash over her and take her over.

"I make it all the way up to hover over you and you look up at me with such… longing. And trust. And I won't let you down. You've allowed me this and I won't ever betray you. You know you're safe and in very capable hands." Rene realized he'd added this in for her benefit… to remind her that he knew this was difficult for her, but that she could rely on him. He would take care of her and bring her peace.

"You make short work of the scrubs that I still have on, and in moments I _am_ pressed against you. My cooler skin rubbing against your hot, human body. Your breasts are crushed against my chest, but I bring my hand in to cup one, squeezing gently as I find your neck with my lips. Under me, you writhe and moan… I… I have to work at not letting go right there. You're… so incredible. Your skin tastes like… the stars... and all I can think of is how you might taste down there. How, if I dip my tongue to lap at you, I'll discover there really is a heaven. So I do. I pull myself along your body and nip and taste my way down your chest and stomach. Gods. Your skin is so hot under my lips as I use them to caress my way across your abdomen, and I find myself planting possessive bruising kisses on each hipbone. I need to mark you, Rene. Can you feel it?" he intoned lowly… sensuously.

She could feel it. She could feel every, blessed word as if it was living. As if his story was physical truth. She could feel him still pushing his glorious mouth against her right hip, pulling at the skin there in a way that caused her to hiss a breath in.

"And then I trail down further. Slowly, slowly moving closer, lightly caressing the skin inside your thighs with my lips until I reach my goal. And what I find… is glorious, Rene. You're so human. So _ready_. And I plunge in, because it's all I can think about. My tongue on you. Tasting you. And Rassilon, I can taste you. You _are_ heaven. You embody it. And now, I've experienced it.

"But you need more than that. More than just my experience of you. You need _relief_, Rene," he said significantly. "And I know I can give it to you. You're bucking in need against my mouth, and I have to hold your hips still as I slowly press the flat of my tongue against you and glide upward toward where you want it most."

Rene's breath hitched and nearly stopped as his swirling tongue met her most sensitive spot.

"And then I'm there. I find your tight, erect need and circle it with the point of my tongue making you mewl and moan. Your voice charges me and I want nothing more than to hear it again. It's the most fantastic sound in the universe. So I move to once again make you emit those precious noises. And you do. Oh, Gods… you do," he said almost reverently sounding slightly breathless. "And the taste of you, and the sound of your moans are driving me mad. I'm desperate to be inside you. You're so close now but I can't have you do this alone. I climb back up your body and you groan with the loss of my tongue, but my mouth quickly finds yours. You can taste yourself on me and knowing that plunges me further into desperation. Taking hold of myself, I find your wet, needy centre and push myself home. I fill you, Rene. And we're perfect together. You're so, so tight… so perfect. I start to move… I can't stop myself… but between us I slip my hand to the top of your mound and swirl my thumb around your apex it tight circles.

"And this is it, Rene. You're going to come. You can feel it building. Building and building until you feel like your centre is alight with fiery electricity. You're so close. So, so close. Your hands are clasping at the sheets and tugging at my hair as you begin to eject breathless curses. And then I can feel it inside you. Your muscles tighten in anticipation of release, Rene. You're starting… it's starting… you're coming… Oh, Gods, Rene… you're clamping around me and milking me of any desire I have to hold back. I can't anymore… I.. Fuck!…" he cursed, releasing a strangled moan.

It was the most astounding experience Rene thought she would ever have. Her body was motionless. Anyone watching would think for all intents and purposes that she had been asleep. But inside she had been anything but. Her body was on fire with arousal. Every nerve ending sang as she'd been pulled closer and closer to release until finally she convulsed, the muscles inside her contracting as the crashing wave of her climax nearly took her into the afterlife. And hearing Dekker, his own arousal so evident, had made the leap into the abyss that much easier. This had affected him too.

Through the vent she could hear him panting. Her own breathing pattern was similar, making her fully aware of what had happened. Suddenly she felt ridiculously giddy. He'd… he'd finished _with her_. He'd told her he wouldn't leave her. He'd said he'd stay with her. And he had. She really hadn't been alone.

She suddenly felt the cool touch of Dekker's fingertips on her temple and felt the now familiar sensation of his mind entering hers. This time, though, the feeling was a bit different. It was _definitely_ intimate. Sated and loving was the best way she could describe it. And God, she understood. She felt the exact same way. She hoped he could feel that.

His mind joined with hers and he moved through it until he evidently found what he was looking for. Like a switch had been thrown, Rene suddenly felt her body return to her control, with her muscles ready to take her own commands.

"You're back," Dekker said, gently pulling out of her mind while brushing a stray hair from her forehead through the grating. Rene felt herself shiver with his touch. After that immense moment, the gentle brush of his fingers on her skin felt so very intimate.

"I'm back," she confirmed, allowing a smile to spread on her lips.

"Are you… How are you feeling?" Dekker murmured, now stroking her hair.

Taking stock of her body, she realized that there was nothing but contentment left in her now. Other than a definite crick in her shoulder… probably from pulling on her wrist restraints earlier… she was feeling 100% better.

Turning so she was facing the grate, and feeling emboldened, she bravely kissed each of his fingers, lingering a bit on each. "I feel brilliant," she said finally finishing her show of adoration and leaning her forehead against the skin of his hand. "You?" she asked honestly, wondering suddenly if he maybe was uncomfortable with her being so forward now that the, urm… pressing issue was dealt with.

"Never been better," she heard him smile. "Then again, I suppose that's a bold statement since I can't recall anything beyond a few days ago. Still… I can't _imagine_ feeling any better. Unless, of course, the dream I had actually came true, that is. Now _that_ would be better. Brilliant, even, if I dare say so," he babbled adorably.

A goofy grin found her again and she laughed.

"What?" he said in mock hurt. "Rene Taggart, are you laughing at my very serious contemplations?"

"Nah. I love 'em," she sighed, now feeling completely knackered. After what felt like _days_ of build up, she was finally sated, and now she was just left with a smouldering contentment. "Thank-you. For that. For, uh… helping with that. You were incredible," she said, a bit shyly. She supposed she shouldn't feel shy really. He'd talked her into a body paralyzing orgasm, for heaven's sake.

Dekker chuckled a bit. "I was obviously quite pleased to be able to help, so you really needn't thank me," he admitted.

Rene smiled. "Well, I'm glad it wasn't just… I mean, I'm glad you enjoyed it too," she shared.

"I did. Very much," he confirmed, making her stomach once again squirm.

A part of her wondered how he'd come up with the scenario he'd painted for her. Had it really been a dream he'd had? Had he _really_ been thinking about that sort of thing before now?

Dekker's voice broke her from her daydream. "I'm glad you're feeling better," he said gently.

"Me too," she replied, once again aware how shy she sounded. Clearing her throat she ventured, "I wonder if this part of their little experiment is over now." Her voice embodied a bitterness she'd been dealing with during this entire ordeal.

Through the vent she heard Dekker take in a deep breath before he answered, "Well, they're still pumping the aphrodisiac into your cell," he confirmed. "Looks like they don't know you've, erm… _found relief_."

It was sort of adorable knowing that he was still a bit embarrassed about talking about sex, even after the sinful picture he'd painted earlier with that very same mouth.

Her musing tapered off as his words really sunk in. "So does that mean this is gonna start all over again?" she said, hearing the tinge of panic in her own voice.

A sort of sad sound reverberated through the vent. "Yeah. I'm afraid so," he confirmed.

"Oh, God," she moaned. Well at least she hadn't taken the wrist restraints off yet. Then the real issue hit her. "Wait… does that mean… we… we're gonna have to do that again, aren't we?" she hazarded, knowing already what he was going to say.

"Well… yeah, probably. If it helps, though, next time I can make it sound a little more dramatic," he offered lightly.

Despite this entire crazy situation, a high pitched barked laugh escaped her. "You git!" she laughed heartily.

"Oi!" he defended, "I'm merely saying that if last time wasn't quite rewarding enough, I can pull out all the stops. There's many more where that last dream came from, you know," he added, a smile shining through his voice.

Her laugh faltered a bit with his last comment and in place of mirth, a familiar longing began to take hold once again. He had 'many more' dreams to take from? She swallowed. Suddenly the cool room around her began feeling a bit warm again.

The now familiar sound of the food trays approaching rang in her ears, pulling her from her internal focus. Deciding she wouldn't be able to eat very easily with her hands behind her back, she reverse engineered her earlier contortion and got her hands back around front. She decided to leave them in their restraints, however. If this was going to happen all over again, she'd need them. Once again she heard the shuffling movement of their captors outside her room. "Well, at least food can distract me for a while," she suggested.

The food tray was pushed through the hole in the door as per usual and she moved to retrieve it with some effort, given the current positioning of her hands. Her stomach grumbled loudly when her eyes settled on the full bowl of food. She'd not eaten in a good while now, and her body was unamused.

She and Dekker ate their meals together by their respective vents and both decided that they should take turns coming up with the least arousing story possible to entertain the other while they ate. The stories were definitely entertaining, and Rene had to remind herself a few times to try to avoid using any words that her own mind could possibly misconstrue as having any sexual connotation. Unfortunately, Dekker hadn't been quite as aware of the double entendre possibilities, and a few times she'd lost track of his storyline in favour of thinking of _other_ ways they could be spending their time… _other_ ways they could be using their mouths to entertain each other.

By the time the lights shifted to 'nighttime setting', Rene was once again feeling quite uncomfortable and it must've been obvious, because finally Dekker commented on it. "You feeling a bit… on edge again?" he asked kindly.

Sadly, his words only made her insides turn to goo. "Um, yeah," she admitted, feeling terrible for not being able to stave off the effects of the drug for very long. It was one thing that the poor bloke beside her had had to help her out once already, but this was getting ridiculous. And how much longer would this go on? Was he gonna need to 'verbally wank' her a few times a day now until they escaped? Not that the thought was a bad one. In fact, the thought itself was more than a bit appealing. It was downright distracting. And almost worth demanding, a big part of her mind was insisting.

"Can I help you with that?" Dekker offered lightly from his side of the wall. His words instantly painted the inside of her thighs with moisture.

"I… uh… but, aren't you tired? I don't wanna impose…" her mouth said, against the much better judgement of her hormones.

Dekker chuckled, his bloody hot voice making her hair stand on end. "I'm not sure if you noticed last time, Rene, but it's not exactly a dreaded task for me," he pointed out. "And I don't want to alarm you, but I noticed that they've almost doubled the dose of aphrodisiac they're filling your cell with over the last hour. They're probably wondering how on earth you're not writhing in pain, the bastards," he hissed. "Anyhow… the drug is so strong in there now… if I don't help you, you truly might go mad. And honestly… it's starting to affect me again as well," he admitted. "I think a repeat of our earlier activities would do us both good," he said remarkably objectively.

'_A repeat of our earlier activities.' _ It sounded so clinical. So detached. Maybe it was for him. Maybe their earlier intimacy had just been an exercise in relief and that's it for him? The idea struck her a very wrong. It was definitely more than that to _her_.

This was hardly the time to go professing her real feelings for this man, though. She needed him right now. Really, REALLY needed him. If she drove him away with her insistence on talking about 'feelings' she might literally implode.

No. She'd save her insecurities for another time. Right now, her body had _needs_ and he was the only one who could fill them.


	10. Chapter 10

This chapter was a doozy to write. It's definitely more character driven, which is more tricky for me, so I hope it comes across as I'd hoped. Anyhow - here we go!

Chapter sentence prompt:

demigodwinchester submitted to writeworld

'You don't owe me anything.'

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 10: Time to go<strong>

"I think a repeat of our earlier activities would do us both good," he'd said. And the reprise had been brilliant. Fantastic even. Molto bene. And all those words were complete understatements. Talking her through her orgasm the first time had been unbelievably arousing, but the second time… he had to admit he'd embellished the dream he'd chosen a bit more than was strictly necessary, if only so he could hear her breath hitch and her panting becoming even more heated. And Gods… it had been worth it. So much so that he'd managed to once again spill on himself necessitating the removal of his top in order to wipe up the mess.

Sighing, he tried to once again get a bit more comfortable while he lay shirtless on the cool floor by the open vent. Rene had drifted off a while back, unable to fight the sleep inducing drug they'd added to the cocktail she was inhaling.

He heard her whimper through the vent and the sound pulled at his hearts. He hadn't been exaggerating earlier when he'd told her he'd wished from the beginning they were in the same cell. And right now, that sentiment was reinforced by his fervent wish that he could hold her. He liked to think she'd accept that kind of closeness from him now if he were really beside her. She'd said a few comments in the heat of her arousal earlier that lead him to think that she perhaps had thought of him _that way_ even before the drug. Then again, she'd hardly been in her right mind at the time. She'd accepted his offer of 'helping her', but of course, given her state at the time she'd hardly had any other options. He knew that, but it didn't stop him from hoping that she hadn't really minded that it was _him_ that was helping her.

Certainly, if _he'd_ had any doubts about the nature of his affection for her, they'd been completely washed away by the their earlier activities. Of course, he'd known before this that he cared for her. Hell… in his waking nightmare he'd even admitted to loving her. And he knew that deep down, whether he ever got to lay eyes on her or not, that would always be the case. But now there was simply no denying the nature of his interest in her. It was… incredible. He was astounded that such horrid trauma could bring about such intense feelings for someone.

Some might argue that it was impossible to really tell at this point in their scenario whether he would feel this way when it was all over, and he could understand the logic behind the argument. They were prisoners. Captives. And he was completely helpless except in his ability to save her from pain. That in itself was worth a few years of analysis to be sure. It didn't negate the fact that he simply knew his feelings to be real. This brave, funny, intelligent woman was, without a doubt, meant for him. He could _feel_ it. He knew it like he knew he was a Time Lord.

There was something, though, that he knew he _wasn't_ sure about. Something that had been bothering him about his travels through Rene's mind. And now, as he lay almost shivering on the cold floor by the vent listening to Rene's soft breaths while she slept, he realized he really needed to analyze it.

He had no personal recollection of ever having been in anyone's mind before this, obviously, but there was no question it felt beyond natural. It was like strolling through her consciousness was something he did everyday… and yet, it felt at the same time like he'd experienced something so cherished and rare that it took his breath away. Familiar, yet not. Even while breezing through her mind, he'd sensed it and the feeling gave him pause. What if she felt familiar because she _was_ familiar?

The feeling of familiarity the second time around had been so strong that during his second tour of her mind he'd tried to access a memory or two on the way by. It had been worth a shot. Of course, he hadn't been able to access anything helpful. All her personal recollections had been walled up against intrusion from her and apparently anyone else for the time being. There was something he sensed, though… something that made him very aware that his feelings for her might not be only based on their encounter in this prison. There was something extraordinary about her. Not that he hadn't noticed that very fact already, but more than that… there was something… beyond human about her. It wasn't that she wasn't human, though. She was. Fantastically human. But there was more to her than met the, uh… fingertips. His brief exploration had uncovered the fact that her mind was organized differently than most humans.

Every sentient being had neuronal connections joining memories to the 'time centres' of the brain. And even though most species' versions of this temporal processing centre weren't even a quarter as developed as a Time Lord's, every species had one. In the simplest terms, this centre allowed living beings to equate a certain time frame with an event. These pathways were normally quite simple in humans, allowing them basic awareness of linear time and their place in it.

Rene's pathways, however… the connections to her temporal processing centre were much more than basic and he was even ready to admit they were far beyond even being intricate. The sheer number of neuronal connections joining her memories to the time centre of her brain were at least quintuple that of a normal human. He wasn't able to read their contents, given the block by the amnesic drug they'd given her, but he knew they were there. And they shouldn't be. Even Time Lords didn't have the complexity of connections she held in her mind. The sheer number of experiences that would have to happen to create such a wealth of connections was unthinkable. Technically, it was impossible.

But what did it mean for her? The implications of such an anomaly had him especially worried for her now. She obviously had no awareness that she was basically a 'time sensitive superhuman'. If she did know that she wasn't strictly a 'typical' human, she certainly gave no indication of it. No… he was quite sure she didn't know.

But did their captors? The idea gave him pause. Maybe neither himself or Rene had been truly 'randomly' chosen for these experiments. Maybe these creatures _knew_ Rene was different and that he wasn't human and they were testing them for that very reason. It would certainly explain the extremes to which they'd tested them. After all, they'd increased the dosage of the aphrodisiac in Rene's cell to levels beyond what any normal human could tolerate. When she hadn't reacted with the typical madness a human would've exhibited at the lower dosage of the drug, they'd increased her exposure to it.

A chill crept through him with the implications of this fact. In his effort to help her, had he inadvertently put her at greater risk? By solving her 'problem' without them knowing, he might have given their captors reason to think Rene was resisting their drug. After all, they'd given her a giant's helping of their arousal drug, yet here their captive was, sleeping soundly, apparently none the worse for wear. Given her rather amazing tolerance to their aphrodisiac, it certainly wasn't out of the realm of possibility that they'd think she was capable of metabolizing drugs more effectively than the average human. And if they were thinking she could withstand more than a mere human could, Rene was at much more risk than he'd even been aware of so far. It may mean that they'd feel free to keep pushing the limits of human tolerance for it. And what about future drugs doses? Would they just triple the doses immediately with the assumption she'd withstand the effects?

Gods… if she'd only let herself succumb to the drug and just let him live through some pain! Now she'd be even more interesting to them and her reactions would be catalogued that much more closely. If he was right about this… and he had a terrible fear that he was… he'd made a grave mistake in providing her with 'relief'.

_Or_, his possibly naive and definitely optimistic mind jumped in… maybe, just maybe... there was goodness in the universe and they actually just thought they'd broken her in some weird way. Could it be that their captors had assumed that her bouts of 'paralysis' were somehow psychologically based? That she'd simply been so overtaken by sexual need that she'd simply shut down?

The thought set a small flicker of hope aflame in his hearts. There was one way to find out. If they thought Rene was some sort of 'superhuman', then theoretically they'd still be pumping her cell with the drug to see how high it would have to be to elicit the desired effect. On the other hand, if they simply thought they'd _won_, there wouldn't be a need to continue drugging her.

Pushing his nose into the hole where the grating should've been, Dekker took a deep breath through his nose. The remnants of Rene's arousal still hung in the air, sending an instant message to his own very receptive hormones. Tamping down the near instant desire her pheromones once again awoke in him, he tried to analyze the air for other particles. Taking another long sniff, he was amazed to find that the drug they'd used to stimulate Rene's arousal had decreased significantly to only about fifteen parts per million.

Relief sloshed through him as if he'd fallen in a pool of it. Thank Gods. It was possible, then, that they didn't realize she was 'special' after all. At least to _them_. That meant that this particular part of the experiment was over. He wasn't about to jump up and down and celebrate too quickly, however. The end of one experiment meant the beginning of another. They would have something new planned for tomorrow. The very idea made him tense.

Their cruel captors had gone through a good number of needs and pressures so far in their effort to see how much one being would sacrifice for another, yet there were still a good many more they could use to test them. Further testing could include exploiting their needs for food, sleep... even oxygen… the list could go on and on, really. How much more did these heartless creatures have in store? And really… if they _did_ think he and Rene were simply another couple of humans, how much more data could they possibly need? It had to be clear to them that there was nothing they could do to them that would make them sacrifice the other. Did they really think it was just a matter of finding the right stimulus? Perhaps they were just trying to find out how long it would take… how many trials they would endure, before they would simply go mad. At this point, he honestly wasn't sure. How could any sentient being justify this kind of treatment of another living being? It was astounding.

He continued pondering this as the sleeping drug started taking effect, slowly dragging him down toward unconsciousness. At this rate, if these monsters continued to use them as they had been, it was only a matter of time before one of them truly _did_ go mad. He could only hope that in their efforts to break them they'd make a mistake. And when they did, he'd have to be ready. It was the only chance he and Rene would have of seeing each other and freedom.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_knock, knock, knock…_

_knock, knock, knock…_

The repetitive thunking tugged at him through the haze of sleep, pulling him from a rather splendid dream involving Rene, a very tight purple blouse, and an incredibly heated snog.

"Dekker?" Rene's voice called softly, beckoning him to real awareness.

"I'm up," he nearly shouted in response, surprising himself with the level of volume he'd responded with.

Rene laughed lightly. "I can hear that," she affirmed. "I… I just wanted to make sure you were alright. It, uh… it just seems late, and you're usually up around the same time as me, so I started to worry."

Dekker took note of the time that had passed. She was right. It had been a full nine hours since he'd succumbed to the drug in his cell. It was practically unheard of for a Time Lord to sleep that long.

"No problem… I'm not sure why I slept so long, actually," he shared.

"You're not getting sick, are you?" she asked with concern.

"Don't think so," he answered, taking stock of his physical state. Nope… everything was functioning appropriately. Except his memory, that is.

"Oh. Okay, good," she said, relief evident in her voice. "So… I was _wondering_…" Rene trailed off.

He waited for a moment for her to finish, but she didn't. "Yeah?" he prompted, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Uh, well… do you think… how long do you think it'll take for us to remember. You know, once we're out of here?" she asked.

"Oh. Well, the drug they're using will take you longer to metabolize than it will for me. It'll probably take a few hours for you to access the most significant memories and a day or two before you have all your memories back. It'll probably take me about half that," he informed her. "Why?"

"Oh, just wondering. Sort of… thinking ahead," she said, obviously distracted.

"Rene… is there something wrong?" he asked, his suspicion now raised. She seemed a little… off. Not that anyone should be particularly 'on' in this place, but she was acting a bit oddly even given this horrid situation.

"Wrong? No. Nothin's wrong. Just… a bit worried what they've got in store for us today, that's all."

Well, he certainly understood that particular worry. "Yeah," he agreed, wishing he could ease her mind, but knowing any attempt would be fruitless. They no doubt had a _lot_ in store for them and it would be ridiculous to try and convince Rene otherwise.

Sighing, Dekker reached for his shirt. It was dry now, though clearly not clean. Despite that, though, he pulled it over his head and pushed his arms through the sleeves. He'd been lying on the cold floor all night and frankly, even with his slightly lower body temperature, he had felt the cold seeping into his bones. He thought about Rene and how she must have a constant chill. If _he_ was feeling this way, imagine how she must feel all the time, even with the scrubs on. He thought about asking her about it, but really, why? It's not like he could do anything to help her, and reminding her how cold she was wouldn't be helpful. Gods he hated this.

Their food trays came not much later and they once again ate together by the vent, but unlike what could be considered 'normal', Rene had very little to say. Overall, she seemed uncharacteristically quiet, which had him concerned. Was _she_ getting sick? Concern for her bloomed in his chest. "Rene… how are you feeling?" he ventured as he finished eating.

"Me? Oh… alright, I guess," she answered. Her words said she was fine, but her voice sounded tense.

"Really?" he ventured. "I mean… you just seem more quiet than usual, that's all. Not that I'd expect you be Ms. Chatty Pants or anything, just… you seem off this morning," he tried.

A prolonged pause met his comment, once again setting worried alarms off in his mind. Something _was_ wrong. Could she not tell him for some reason? Was there something threatening her and she'd been somehow warned not to say anything? Fear bolted through him with that thought. She was in trouble over there. He quickly looked around the cell for anything unusual. Was there a way he could help her? Had they hidden some 'save button' in his room?

Then he heard a large sigh issue through the vent. "I didn't want to say anythin'... cause it doesn't matter anyway. It's not gonna change anythin'," she insisted.

"What? What is it, Rene?" he said, his anxiety now peaking.

"Well… I woke up this morning, and… the door was open," she said resignedly.

"What?!" Dekker squawked. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

Another sigh. "Because it doesn't change anythin'," she repeated. "I know what they're doing, Dekker, and I'm not gonna do it."

They were offering her freedom. Freedom in exchange for his pain. Dekker took a steadying breath. "Rene… there's a very good chance they're actually offering you a way out," he said as evenly as he could manage. "Of course, there's a real possibility that even if you tried to leave they'd just bring you back, but if they're doing what I think they're doing, they may actually be ready to set you _free_" he informed her.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not riskin' it. No matter what might happen after, they'd still torture you. The minute I step out that door they'll hurt you. I'm not gonna be responsible for that," she said decidedly.

Despite his efforts to stay calm, Dekker's vexation with her reasoning peaked. "Rene, this might be the only chance you have to escape this place! Don't you care about that?" he demanded, now entirely frustrated with this human's desire to put him before herself. Enough was enough. She needed to get _out_.

"Would _you_? Would you leave me here, being tortured? If they left the door to _your_ cell wide open, would you just take off without me?" she responded, her voice hard.

Dekker took a long breath in through his nose. Finally, sighing out an answer, he said, "Yes. Yes I would, Rene. If it meant I could finally get out of this place… for good… I would. I'm sorry, but I would." He felt his stomach turn even as he felt the lie escape his lips.

"What?" she replied, clearly surprised by his response.

"I'm sorry, Rene, but I'm just being honest," he replied, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "If I was faced with the same choice as you right now, I'd have to choose freedom. Oh… I'd try to get back to save you if I could, but in the end, I'd know it was the only real course of action," he said evenly.

There was a prolonged pause on the other side of the wall. Then, "I don't believe you," she said, her voice faltering. The sound nearly broke him.

Steeling himself, he continued his calculated explanation, "I'm sorry, Rene, but it's true. And really… it would be the smartest course of action all around anyway. If I got to freedom, I could find help… get you out. It would be worth a bit of short term pain for you if in the end I got you out, wouldn't it? Think about it," he insisted, hating himself for trying to manipulate her this way. It was the only way he could see to try to get her to take the opportunity they were offering her.

After a prolonged pause she said, "So you want me to leave? Just… take off and leave them to torture you? And you expect me to believe you'd do that to _me_?" she said incredulously.

"Yes. I do. Because I would," he assured her. "I don't owe you anything, just like you don't owe me anything. We've done what we had to do so far, thinking we were going to be stuck here. But if I knew I could get out… that I could be free… I'd leave."

Another pause. "Well fine. You would. But I won't. I can't. I'd rather stay here for eternity than give them another chance to hurt you," she insisted. "And even if you _would_ leave me… and I'm not sure I believe that you would… I understand. I wouldn't judge you for it. I really wouldn't," she shared.

A lump of… frustration? anger? love?... balled in his throat. "Rene…" he said in an frustrated whimper. Gods! This woman was going to be the death of him! Even if he really was the kind of person he'd been pretending to be, she'd STILL save him. Rassilon… what would it take for her to save herself!

"No, Dekker. I'm not leavin'. I'm gonna do what I can to help you, whether you want me to or not," she confirmed.

A frustrated growl erupted from him ending in a barked, "Rene… LEAVE! Go! For Orion's sake… can't you see? You're no good to me here! You need to get out! Find a way to save me from outside of this prison!" he demanded.

He was expecting her to shout back at him, and he was ready to escalate the entire interaction if it meant he could alienate her enough to get her to leave. Instead though, her voice dropped to a soft, almost pleading tone. "Dekker, I'm not leavin' you. I… I don't want to. I need you. And I just know… somehow I know that I can't be without you. So please… don't ask me to leave. I don't have it in me to do it. I couldn't even if I wanted to, which I don't. So please… let this drop, yeah?"

All the fight went out of him as her words hit home. What he'd wondered after walking through her mind… she'd been thinking the same thing. There was something drawing them together. Familiarity… a 'superhuman-ness'... love. He wasn't going convince her to leave. He _hated_ that he wasn't going to, but he now knew the argument was over. She'd won.

Despair completely filled him for the first time since they'd woken in this place, and tears prickled in his eyes. She was going to die here with him. The only chance he had to get her out, and there wasn't any way she was going to take it.

The tears threatening to fall finally overflowed and a soft sob spilled from him.

"Dekker?" her soft voice sought him out.

He couldn't answer her. Not without opening the floodgates completely.

"We'll get out of here. I know we will. But we'll do it together, yeah? You an' me," she assured him.

A sad laugh hiccuped from him. It hadn't been long ago he'd been assuring her of the same outcome, and now here she was, being fantastic. Being what he needed.

Swallowing his remaining tears, he forced himself to take a steadying breath. This place got under your skin, making hope seem ridiculous and naive, and yet this human had the kind of fortitude that he'd originally assumed _he'd_ have to have to support _her_. He wondered if underestimating others was something he often did. If it was, he planned on changing that particular trait.

"Dekker?"

After another few moments, he found his voice, though it was still decidedly choked with emotion. "When we get out of here, I'm taking you out for the most fantastic meal you've ever had, Rene Taggart," he informed her, meaning every word.

A little giggle met his ears and sent a fluttery shiver down his spine. "Alright, you're on," she replied, clearly relieved they were done arguing.

"I may even have a few pints and let the alcohol work on me a bit. Just for your entertainment," he advised her, a smile finding his voice despite everything.

"Why do I have a feeling that would be a privilege to witness?" she asked, and he wasn't sure why, but he could almost hear her tongue touching her teeth.

"Oi… make fun if you wish, but I have a feeling I don't let just _anyone_ see me imbibe," he shared. "Anyway… I suspect you may want a few pints yourself at the end of all this and I wouldn't want you to feel alone," he added.

"Too right about that," she laughed.

They both chuckled a bit at that before settling into a comfortable silence. After a bit, Dekker couldn't help but feel he had to clear something up. "Rene… I, uh… I want you to know… what I said about leaving you here…" he started.

"You don't have to explain," she interrupted. "I get it. It's alright," she added.

"No, you don't… I mean, I wouldn't. I wouldn't leave you. I… I said that, but… "

"I know, Dekker. You wanted me to leave. You wanted to save me. I know," she assured him.

"You… you do?" he said, unsure.

"Yeah. Reckon I would've said the same if it were me on the other side. If I thought you might leave if I said that. I would've. So… it's okay. I get it. And I know you wouldn't leave me."

"How? How do you know that?" he asked, truly wondering.

She paused for a moment before answering, "Honestly I'm not sure. I can just… feel it, I guess. It's like… I know I'm human. It just… is," she reasoned.

Made sense to him. He felt the same way.


	11. Chapter 11

This chapter heralds the return of the 'Evil Diabolical Beastie' as I've been dubbed by those who've decided my muse has an evil bent. As I'm loathe to argue, I will concede it has a rather jaded idea of what constitutes fair treatment for our babies. Still… I never let our dear heroes languish in the end, so I promise not to completely crush your hearts to a bloody pulp before I release you from your reading obligations.

I say 'obligations', but in reality, I'm just desperately hoping you're bear with my evil muse until the end of this fic!

Anyhow - on with the show...

Sentence Prompt for this chapter - putthepromptsonpaper : 'He sat crouched in the glass case, eyes fighting between fury and fear.'

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 11: Shiver and Shake<strong>

The next morning arrived with no fanfare. Dekker woke ahead of Rene, which was more characteristic of him than what had happened yesterday. He kept his eyes closed, though, deciding to put off the inevitable. A small smile found his lips on hearing a soft snore through the vent. His arm was still threaded awkwardly through the wall with his fingers clasped onto the grating leading into her room. Her own fingers were curled through the mesh, wrapping around his as best they could.

Last night had been spent discussing the physics of force fields of all kinds. It hadn't occurred to him that Rene had been expecting her memories to return since her door had been open all day. It wasn't until she asked why she still wasn't recalling any details of her life by their evening meal that he realized she'd been waiting for it. They'd clearly activated chemical force fields that allowed anything covered in organic particles to pass through but not purely inorganic ones. In other words, even with the door open, the drug they were pumping into her cell was contained.

The news had been a blow for her, he knew. He wished he'd realized earlier what she'd been expecting, because it tore at him to hear her very clear disappointment with the news. He'd done his best to boost her spirits by making up a new story about a certain Time Lord who travelled with a dark haired lothario type of bloke who got them into all sorts of amourous trouble. He wasn't sure how he'd done it, but somehow he'd managed to integrate a llama into the story, which made Rene laugh heartily. He smiled in memory of her happy giggles. As dumb as his story had been, it had done the trick and finally, as their combined laughter died off, she'd asked if he wouldn't mind holding her hand as she fell asleep.

It was barmy how happy that had made him. He mentally shook his head in wonder. Her hand was meant to be in his. It was the thought that one day her hand would be embraced by his out of happiness rather than fear that made him keep going. That idea drove him to breathe in and out each and every moment they spent in here. With his eyes still closed, he did his best to imagine they were really walking hand in hand down a leaf strewn trail on some two sunned planet somewhere instead of lying on the floor in this hell hole.

The klaxon sounded making Dekker's eyes fly open, yanking him cruelly from his contented musing. Quickly pulling his arm free of the vent, he stood, about to survey the floor surrounding him for any illuminated squares. Instead, though, his attention was immediately pulled to a large contraption in the middle of the room. They must have brought it in during the night. It was a large glass case sitting on a one foot high base and covered with a one foot thick 'lid' of sorts. It looked like a human sized aquarium… about nine square feet of floor area and it stood about four feet tall. Inset on one of the sides was a door.

From the cell next door he heard Rene's anxiety filled words, "Dekker? What's going on in there?"

He was about to answer when Rene let out a piercing scream. "Rene!" he shouted back. She was unable to answer him with anything but continued cries of pain, but he didn't need any sort of explanation to understand what was happening to her. Honing his gaze back to the ominous glass enclosure, he knew immediately what they wanted from him. What he didn't know was why.

He didn't have time to consider that now, though. All he knew is that he couldn't let Rene suffer their torture any longer. Jumping to the case, he pulled at the door on the side of it so it opened and he crouched to step in, closing it tightly behind him.

Rene's wails instantly stopped, being replaced by whimpers from her side of the wall. If he wasn't a Time Lord, he doubted he would've heard her, as the case he was now enclosed in muffled the noises outside of it. Examining the enclosure, he found the door had a handle on the inside as well as the outside. So he had options, it seemed. Part of him felt relief at that… he could get out of here if he had to. Another part of him, though, knew exactly what that meant. He was going to be given a 'so-called' choice, and he wasn't going to be choosing between getting a relaxing massage or taking a luxurious bubble bath.

From outside the casing he could make out Rene's voice calling him. He doubted she'd be able to hear him if he shouted back, but he gave it a try anyway. "Rene! I'm… they've got me in a small glass case," he tried yelling to her. "I'm alright though," he added. For now.

He thought he might have heard her reply, but just then he was startled by a deluge of cool water pouring down on him from above. Spluttering and wiping the cold liquid from his face, he panicked for a moment. Were they going to drown him? He realized quickly, though, that the flooring was grated and was draining the water as it poured over him. A bit of relief filtered through him.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the downpour stopped. Wiping his hair back from his forehead and face, he heard Rene's voice again calling him. "I'm alright," he tried to assure her.

Rose's voice pushed through the added barrier between them, "What are they -"

A hiss suddenly filled his ears replacing the muffled sound of her voice. Alarmed, his head swivelled to locate the source of the sound. It was coming from above him. A vent in the centre of the solid casing of the attached roof was streaming warm air on top of him and into the small chamber. Taking a deep breath, he quickly analyzed the air. 22% oxygen, 72% nitrogen, bits of argon, carbon dioxide and trace amounts of methane. Basically, it was your run of the mill earth typical air, except of course for the 5% neuronal inhibitor they were also adding to the mix to keep him amnesic. So… what was the point? Had this all been some sort of… cleaning exercise? Wash the captive time? One could hope that's all that was going on.

Unfortunately, though, his ignorant bliss was rudely wiped out by a sudden change in the temperature of the air rushing down his back. They were dropping the temperature. Above him, an increasingly frigid wind spilled from the vent making him shiver. Around him he could feel the air cooling steadily. From ten degrees to eight to six… the temperature continued it's downward trajectory. He was beginning to wonder when it might even out when finally the temperature stopped dropping at two degrees celsius. Just above freezing. He was wet. They were trying to induce hypothermia.

The reality of what was happening set in as he sat crouched in the glass case, eyes fighting between fury and fear. He was beyond angry and equally as terrified… but not for himself. If he was human… if he was _Rene_... at this temperature it would only be a matter of thirty minutes before he'd be unconscious and an hour and a half at the very most before his body gave up altogether. This was an endurance test. How long would a human tolerate frigid and dangerous temperatures before giving in to temptation and stepping out of the box? Would the fate of the other human matter enough to them? That was their test. These sad excuses for intelligent beings were playing with their captive's lives with the objective interest of a child holding a magnifying glass over ants on the ground. Their choices were merely going to be catalogued and compared to the choices of other humans placed in similar circumstances. Conclusions would be drawn and perhaps applied to their own paradigms. Perhaps not. It didn't matter. What mattered was that his life and Rene's life… they didn't _matter_ in the eyes of these creatures.

The glass of the enclosure was beading with moisture from the water they'd sprayed over him and the cold air played around him now making him shiver a bit. His own body temperature usually hovered around 33 degrees… a good four degrees lower than the average human, thank Rassilon, otherwise he'd already be suffering a significant chill from the near freezing air on his wet skin. His physiology gave him some reprieve from the effects of the cold, but he knew it was just that. A reprieve. Just as a human would, he would eventually succumb to the frigid temperature. At least he'd have a bit longer before he'd truly freeze to death.

Wait. A bit longer. He wouldn't succumb in the time they'd expect him to. A wave of hope washed through his veins. He had the biological advantage here, and maybe he could use it to save more than just his own arse. Maybe he could get them out of here. Excitement raced through him as he fleshed out the budding plan. Yes… this might just work! It meant, though, that he had to react like a human.

An unrelenting shiver was naturally starting to set in now, but he knew he'd have to play it up further. A human would be getting close to experiencing a moderate hypothermia about now. Setting himself to practically vibrate, he exaggerated the effects of the cold on his body. For good measure the threw in chattering teeth as well.

The cold air washing down on him from above made the task of acting frozen easier and easier as minutes ticked by, but he tried to push the reality of his own cooling body temperature out of his mind. He needed to focus on his performance. His plan hinged on it.

Deciding to add another dimension to this dramatization, he called to his captors, shivering and slurring his speech purposefully. "Why are you d-d-doing this?!" he shouted. "C-C-C-Can't you just accept that we'll n-n-n-never give you the satisfaction of winning? You can't m-m-make us turn against each other. D-D-Do you hear me?!" he yelled.

The outburst had been a calculated acting exercise, but Dekker quickly found it to be incredibly cathartic and continued to vent his pent up frustration with gusto. "The f-f-fact that you consider us mere p-p-pawns… disposable c-c-creatures whose only purpose is to provide you 'information' or w-w-worse… maybe even _entertainment_... shows how very s-s-small you are. How t-t-t-tiny your view of the universe is. How you t-t-t-treat creatures you consider 'less s-s-significant' than yourselves says more about your s-s-s-species than anything else could. And d-d-don't think for a moment that this won't c-c-come back to haunt you. Because it will! S-S-Someday you'll find yourselves on the other side of your m-m-microscope and I hope you'll remember what you d-d-d-did here when that happens!" he slurred.

Adrenaline pumped through him due to his tirade and it took a moment before he realized he should probably be elevating his symptoms again. By now a human would be close to experiencing severe hypothermia. He needed to ramp it up. It wouldn't be a stretch. His own body was actually itself firmly in the mildly hypothermic stage.

He knew that with severe hypothermia the human body would try to curl in on itself to conserve heat, so he did his best to scrunch into as small a ball as he could manage and leaned heavily on the side of the small enclosure. He also knew that the human body would actually _stop_ shivering in an effort to conserve glucose at this point, but he really wasn't sure if he'd be able to manage it. His own body's real reaction to the mild hypothermia he was experiencing was to shiver uncontrollably. Closing his eyes, he turned inward and worked to tamp down his motor reaction to the cold. It worked a bit, decreasing the violence of his tremors, but he wasn't able to completely do away with them. Oh well… it was hopefully good enough.

Minutes continued to tick by and in addition to the numb feeling in his hands and feet he was now finding it difficult to concentrate. _Moderate hypothermia,_ his mind told him. Right. It was probably time to finish this performance. A human would be well into severe hypothermia by now. Once again closing his eyes, he concentrated on his next task. Purposely slowing his breathing, he worked on slowing his heartsrates. As much as he knew he was doing this as part of his 'performance', a large part of him was relieved to be shutting down and leaving the conscious world. The hiss of the cruel vent above began to drift away as he pushed himself to close up shop. Before long, a blessed quiet overcame him and he finally found relief from the biting cold.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

From the moment she'd been pumped full of pain from the brightly lit tile under her feet, she'd known Dekker was going to be facing something gruesome. His muffled shouts about being in a 'case' of some kind were all she had to go by in her efforts to understand what they were putting him through. At one point she was sure she heard him shouting at their captors. She made out the general gist of the rant; their brutal treatment of their captives, their poor judgement in using them in this way, and how they would someday find themselves in similar circumstances. She tried shouting to him a number of times, but he clearly wasn't able to hear her. Or if he had, he wasn't able to answer.

It was a full hour of unrelenting anxiety before Rene heard noises outside in the hall and heard Dekker's door open. They were coming for him. Oh God! What the hell had they been doing to him, that he didn't last even a couple of hours? "Dekker! Damn it! Stop hurting him, you bastards!" she shouted fruitlessly, knowing the aliens keeping them here wouldn't be listening.

She'd been right, of course. She got no response. A few moments later she heard Dekker's door closing. They'd taken him. _Please_ let him be okay…

Standing, she began pacing her once again sealed cell. Of course, she hadn't been surprised to find the door firmly closed again this morning. That particular trial had ended and it had been time for another. She only wished it had been _her_ they'd made suffer again, though. Instead, Dekker had been their victim this time and now he was gone. She was alone again in this terrible place.

She knew it was an incredibly selfish way to think about what was happening at the moment. He was somewhere in this prison… alone and probably suffering… and here she was lamenting the fact she was _alone_, for heaven's sake. It wasn't that she wasn't worried for him, though, she thought, giving herself a bit of a break. She was. Desperately. But she also knew he was the only reason she cared to be alive in here at the moment. If he wasn't in this with her, she'd have possibly given up long ago. She needed him.

With nothing to do but wait, she eventually settled back down by the vent and leaned against the wall. This was as close as she could get to him at the moment, so she'd wait here for him. Forever, if she had to.


	12. Chapter 12

Alright, my dear readers… bear with me. This chapter sees our heroes on the brink of discovering the true nature of their situation, and the discovery is going to be far from pleasant!

P.S. - As a side note, a brilliant insightful reader brought to my attention that I had a continuity problem in Chapter 10 regarding Rene's open door… she would've seen the aliens bringing her meal! Sorry for that! Anyhow - it's all fixed now - she still hasn't laid eyes on their captors. Also, I've added a tweak here and there in that chapter as well, since I could.

Anyway… on with the show…

Sentence Prompts for this chapter -

writeworld: "This was meant to be."

putthepromptsonpaper : "I have to say - you really do put the 'host' in 'hostage situation'."

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 12: The Candidates<strong>

An annoying buzz filled his mind, as if a particularly perturbed bee had taken up residence in it. Mentally, he did his best to swat it away in an effort to return to the unconscious state he'd been enjoying. The buzzing became more insistent, however, demanding that he pull himself closer to consciousness. Begrudgingly, he did so, wondering what on Gallifrey could be so important that he couldn't catch a few more hours of sleep.

The smell of antiseptic met his nose with his increased awareness, instantly alerting him. Where was he?

Then it came flooding back. The glass tank. The bitter cold. Rene.

His eyes flew open as the memories assaulted him. He'd put himself in a coma in order to be removed from his cell and then had set a mental 'alarm' to bring him back to consciousness sooner than they'd anticipate. Apparently his ruse had worked.

An odd pressure on his face alerted him to the fact that his nose and mouth were covered by an oxygen mask, which was plying his lungs with a high concentration of oxygen with an added bit of amnesic. He was about to drag it off, but quickly thought better of it. Not a smart move if someone was watching. Without moving his head he glanced around the room. He was alone. Scanning the walls for surveillance devices, he was pleased to find they hadn't bothered equipping the room with one as far as he could tell. Thank Gods.

Looking down at himself he realized they'd been warming him with a weighted, heated blanket, which was slowly bringing his body temperature back to normal. Good thing he'd woken when he did, as his internal temperature was already back up to 33 degrees. To be heated to human temperature would do nothing but make him experience heat stroke.

Slowly sitting up, he pulled the mask off, laying it on the bed beside him. Extricating himself from under the blanket, he swung his long legs over the side of the bed, only to realize he was starkers. Brilliant.

Taking in the room around him, it became clear very quickly that it had been designed with his alien captors in mind. The cupboards and shelves lining the walls were presumably at a waist height of about 4 ½ feet. There were a series of beds in the room, none of which were occupied.

Alright. Well, the first order of business was to find some sort of clothing. Jumping from the tall bed, he made his way to one of the rows of cupboards. It was then he noticed the reflective surface of some sort of cold storage unit. He wasn't vain, he didn't think, but it would be nice to know what he actually looked like. Standing on his toes, he was able to see himself staring back as he stood looking into it. The shock of brown hair that greeted him surprised him a bit. He'd sort of imagined himself with ginger hair, so the mess of brown atop his head was a bit disappointing. Still… not bad. His face was thin and not unattractive, if he did say so. At least he wasn't hideous, as he'd once proposed to Rene.

Having seen enough, he continued searching the room. In one cupboard he found the soiled scrubs he'd been brought in and was about to pull them on when something sticking out of the corner of the next cupboard caught his eye. Opening it, he discovered more clothes, but not scrubs this time. This time he found a suit… a brown pinstriped number with a vest, a white dress shirt and a swirling purple tie. Under it sat socks, pants, and a pair of converse. He wasn't sure whose these were, but he wasn't about to complain. Anything was better than the smelly scrubs he'd been wearing. Pulling on the pants and socks, he made quick work of the rest and quickly realized that it all fit a bit too perfectly. The truth of who really owned this kit set in as he did up the last button on the suit jacket. It had to be his. He had to admit… he did quite like the ensemble, though he wasn't sure about the converse. Wouldn't a nice pair of dress shoes do the outfit more justice? Then again, they _were_ splendidly comfortable and he had to admit that he was happy to have found these instead of a pair of stiff dress shoes.

Absently he patted the outside of the jacket pockets probing for the outline of any contents. Nothing he could feel. Dipping his hand into the outside front left panel pocket, he wondered if he might find a piece of paper or anything that might give him a clue as to who he was. When his hand pushed past the opening, he was startled to find that his fingertips didn't seem find the bottom of the lining. Then it occurred to him. Bigger on the inside. Oh, _brilliant_! A goofy grin spread across his face with the discovery. Digging further into the depths of this transdimensional storage space, he pulled out a pair of glasses, a half eaten Lion bar, a bag of ball bearings, an electric toothbrush, and a pair of earrings. Earrings?

Gods… was he… maybe he was _with_ someone. It certainly appeared that he might be. What kind of bloke kept earrings in his pocket just in case? No one. A lump formed in his throat. At this moment he had to admit he definitely wasn't happy about this particular revelation. He wasn't ready to entertain the idea that he might 'belong' to someone other than Rene at the moment. Not that he really belonged to her in any real way yet, but he couldn't deny his feelings for her. That's what he wanted. More. With _her_.

Well, there was no point worrying about who belonged to whom at the moment. There would be plenty of time to worry about that once he had Rene safely away from this place.

Then it occurred to him. If _his_ clothes were there, might Rene's be as well? Opening a few more cupboards filled with medical supplies, he finally came across one housing a pair of woman's jeans and a purple blouse. A purple blouse. Oh God… he'd _dreamed_ of this blouse. He was sure of it! But… that meant… that meant his 'dream' had likely been a memory seeping through. He _did_ know Rene before this! And… Gods! Those were _her_ earrings in his pocket!

He let himself imagine a scenario in which Rene might have left earrings on a nightside table in some hotel room they'd shared after a night of splendid lovemaking and he'd slipped them in his pocket with the intention of returning them.

The thought that he and Rene had probably been a proper couple before this… that they'd likely done much more than merely _talk_ each other into orgasm… made him giddy. He _knew_ she'd felt familiar, and now it seemed they'd probably been physically familiar as well. After all, if his dreams were anything to go by, they must have had a rather 'adventurous' relationship before this.

He let himself enjoy that thought for a moment before he shook himself into action. This was hardly the time to indulge in his musings about their possible sex life. He had to get her out of here or they'd never discover what they really were to each other.

Grabbing her clothes under his arm, he briefly considered going through the rest of his pockets, but decided against it. There would be time for that later. Right now he had to find Rene. Moving to the door of the room, he reached up to grasp the knob. Pulling the door open as slowly as he dared, he peeked out into the hall. The walls were painted a muted yellow and between inset doors they were adorned with pictures of couples. From here he could see a framed photo of a human couple and the next held a photo of a reptilian couple… Silurians. This struck Dekker as extremely odd. Why would creatures who clearly saw humans as mere 'stock' put pictures up of them in the halls?

Then again, he supposed humans on earth did the same. They experimented on mice and ate cows, but still seemed to enjoy posting paintings and drawings of both in their children's books and on the internet. Maybe this was simply some sort of 'pet appreciation' ritual this species had.

Slipping out into the cheery looking hall, he looked both ways. Along the walls were small alcoves housing doors to various rooms. Which direction? Could Rene be in one of these very rooms? He sighed. Finding Rene was going to be no small feat. He had no idea how large this complex was or how many beings were involved in this operation. It could range from a handful to hundreds. Thousands. He had no idea.

Well he wouldn't get any closer to saving Rene if he didn't get looking. Deciding to try going left, he snuck into the hall and begun skulking along the corridor. The first door was marked 'Cleaning Supplies'. Wait. Did he just read the door sign? Surely these creatures didn't speak English? He'd assumed he'd somehow learned English at some point and that's why he understood Rene. Perhaps these creatures had kept human subjects so long that they just adopted the language? Highly unlikely.

Storing this mystery for later ponderance, he moved on to the next doors, pausing to read the room label for each while staying alert for any movement or noise that might indicate his captors were approaching.

The halls seemed oddly deserted, making him that much more vigilant. Granted, they likely hadn't expected him to wake so quickly from what they would've thought was a hypothermic induced coma, so there it made sense that they weren't keeping watch on him in the infirmary. Nevertheless, he'd assumed he'd come across an alien or two drifting through the halls. There was no one. With each corridor he roamed his stomach tightened further with increasing dread. It truly was too quiet. This was too…

Ahead of him and to the left a door opened. Darting into a nearby alcove, he pressed himself against the wall and held his breath, listening intently. Happy voices met his ears.

"...a tremendous day! This was meant to be!" one voice exclaimed.

"I'm just honoured to be here to witness it," another said almost reverently. There was a murmur of agreement from one or two other voices.

A small group of humanoid beings slowly glided into view. Remaining stock still, Dekker felt his respiratory bypass kick in with the prolonged holding of his breath. The creatures were indeed tall and they definitely weren't unsubstantial in build. They wore simple white tunic type tops that emphasized the swirling pale blue and light green patterns adorning the skin of their faces and hairless scalps. For bottoms they wore complimentary dark trousers with military type boots. Alarmingly, but not surprisingly, each had a weapon strapped into a holster-like holder at his side.

The group continued their slow pass of the alcove he was housed in, but to his deep surprise and absolute terror, they all turned to face him just as it seemed he'd managed to elude them.

After a moment of startled silence on his part, one of the aliens piped up in a positive bass voice, "Congratulations, Candidate!" The others nodded and began clapping.

Dekker was sure his jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Well _this_ was unexpected. He'd thought perhaps guns might be drawn. At the very least he figured harsh words might be thrown his way. It seemed, however, these beings weren't at all upset that he'd managed to get himself free from their infirmary. Almost the opposite, in fact. Well, no matter. He was here now. And the way he saw it, he had two choices. One; he could do what his first inclination was, which was to lay into them for the horrendous treatment of their 'guests'. That, however, would likely do nothing but get guns drawn. Two; he could play along and bide his time until he could elude them. He opted for the latter. "Well, thank-you," he answered, pasting on a grin. "I thought it was rather impressive, myself," he added.

The troup laughed at that, apparently thinking his reaction was incredibly amusing. "Did you hear that?" one of them laughed loudly, addressing the massive alien beside him. "I've never met a Time Lord before! They're very humourous!" he added.

Dekker froze. They knew he was Time Lord? Well… that was a surprise. He'd been sure they'd thought he was human. Right… well, that didn't really change anything at the moment. Right now he needed to play along. Deciding to join in, Dekker added his voice to their laughter. "Right! I suppose we are! A barrell of laughs, us Time Lords," he agreed.

Their laughter increased with this comment and he let his own rise with theirs. After another few moments of mirth, he sighed loudly in the wake of his rather forced laughter, "Ahhhhh… Weeelllll, I have to say - you really do put the 'host' in 'hostage situation', but I really should be going. Gotta find my friend. You know… the blonde human? Have to get her back to her family. You know how it is. In-laws, and all that. Anyhow - thanks for the adventure. We'll be sure to check in with you again some time!" he advised them in as disarming a way as he could.

If he thought he couldn't be more amusing to them before this, he'd apparently been mistaken, because his last comment had them practically rolling on the ground in mirth. Dekker began laughing again with them, moving in to reach up and clap one of them on the shoulder before attempting to push his way past him, still chuckling as if continuing to join in their joke.

The laughter continued for a few moments as the large alien blocked his way with an amused smile. "I'm sorry Candidate, but I'm afraid you're going the wrong way. She's down this hall," the tall creature advised him, pointing back the way they'd come.

Again… not what he'd expected his captor to say. "Oh. Well. Thanks," he said, mock saluting the huge alien. "I'll just be collecting her, then," he said, nodding his thanks again.

The massive male smiled down in response. "Good idea. Here… let me take that for you for now," he offered, gesturing to the wad of clothing under Dekker's arm. He'd almost forgotten he had Rene's clothes still tucked there. "She won't be needing them right away," the large man explained.

Offering the alien a lopsided grin, he surrendered the clothing warily. It didn't look like Rene was going to be allowed that part of her dignity back just yet. The group responded with wide smiles at Dekker's perceived cooperation, making him feel even more uneasy.

Tensely, he turned to head in the direction the creature had indicated, walking steadily down the hall with the looming group following him. They whispered animatedly to each other as he walked and as he made his way further and further down the corridor his wariness grew. He'd only followed their commands to give up Rene's clothes and head in this direction because he knew damn well he had very little choice. Every one of them were built like lorries. Massive, strong and unyielding. He could pretend all he wanted that he had any real choices here, but in reality he was going to follow their lead whether he wanted to or not.

"She's in the room on the left," one of them said from behind him. The chuckles and chatter died down behind him.

Looking sidelong at the small collection of massive aliens, he took in their clearly pleased and almost reverent expressions. Ohhhh… this was _not_ good.

Eying the large door before him, he grabbed at the handle and pulled it open. Before him sprawled an auditorium. Hundreds and hundreds… no… _thousands_... of these creatures filled the seats on either side of the ornate entryway. The clothing was ornate and clearly different than those his escorts wore. A runway, which was carpeted in a brilliant blue and green swirling pattern reminiscent of the designs on their skin, lead up to a raised stage in the distance. On either side of the runway leading further into the auditorium there stood a number of aliens dressed in the same uniforms his escorts were. Security.

With his appearance at the head of the runway, the entire audience stood and applauded. Hoots and cheering calls echoed through the massive structure. Blinking wide eyed at the sight before him, he slowly gathered his wits. He had no idea what these creatures were on about, but he knew he should probably play along if he wanted to find out. He'd likely get nowhere fast if he bucked against it. Taking a deep breath, he pasted a smile on his face and nodded his thanks first to one side of the audience and then the other.

The cheers flew up and rose as he did so. Behind him, his escorts gently prodded him forward.

Moving slowly down the long runway, he found himself distracted by the salutes the aliens lining the carpet gave him as he passed. It wasn't until he was nearly at the end of the runway before he looked up. What met him there sucked the air from his lungs.

At least fifty massive screens took up the entire back of the enormous stage. Each framed a picture of a different couple, all of which were humanoid, though not all of the same species. He stopped in his tracks, were these all the captives? His eyes darted from picture to picture looking for a blonde and a tall, thin bloke but there were no pictures he thought might be them.

Once again, his large escorts prodded him to move. He swallowed. It looked like he was meant to be the entertainment tonight.

He slowly ascended the steps to the daunting stage, and about halfway up his stomach knotted further. Lining the podium were five large ornate chairs, only one of which was empty. The others were filled and the beings filling them looked at him warily as he finally mounted the flat stage. It was a rag-tag group, to be sure. One was a Silurian, another was an Argolin, there was a Human, and another was an orange-hued humanoid whose species he didn't recognize. They all had one thing in common, though. They all wore the same expressions of caution and bewilderment that he was sure he was sporting at the moment. If he wasn't so disturbed by the fact that none of them was Rene, he'd have been more aware that all of them were bound to their chairs.

Most of his escorts dropped back while two led him toward the the only empty chair in the row. Knowing he had no choice, he settled tensely into the throne-like seat. His remaining guards moved in quickly and fastened him into the high backed chair, causing a fresh flood of adrenaline to saturate his bloodstream. Whatever was going to happen here, his captors were aware that he might not like it much.

'_Ladies and Gentlemen… 'The Candidates'!'_ a deep voice boomed across the stadium. With that announcement, the immense crowd went wild, cheering and hooting their approval.

'_And here is your host for the evening… our Regent elect… Ushea Rulaimav!'_

From somewhere at the back of the stage, a towering female emerged, her sequined robe sparkling in the spotlights. She was slightly smaller than the males he'd had escorting him, but she was no less formidable. She all but swaggered to stand confidently in centre stage, waving at the roaring crowd with a wide, put-on smile. Dekker didn't personally remember any politicians he'd ever met, but everything about this woman screamed the term at him.

The woman raised both hands to quiet the audience. "Thank-you! Thank-you so much!" her voice rose over the continued cheers.

Now sitting tensely, facing the crowd along with those he assumed were other captives, Dekker suddenly had a tremendous urge to run. Even if he could get himself unbound, though, he'd get nowhere fast with all the military types looming at the bottom of the stage and lining the way to the exit.

"Rulazians…" the statuesque woman boomed, her voice now almost excruciatingly amplified, making Dekker nearly jump out of his skin, "Welcome to a new beginning!" The crowd erupted again into thunderous applause and happy calls. A new beginning? He wasn't sure how he and the others on this stage possibly fit into this 'new beginning', but apparently they did if the look of adoration on this… Rulazian's… face was any indication. It took at least another full minute, but eventually the applause lightened a bit.

"Ladies and Gentlemen in the audience and those of you viewing from your homes… we thank-you for your patronage. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be on the brink of this new age!" Applause greeted the bold statement and the woman nodded her thanks after bowing her head in deference to the audience's perceived support. "It has been a long, arduous road to get here, but finally we're on the final leg of this journey," she boomed. "And it is all due to the incredible sacrifices these astounding beings have made… and will make... so that we may rise again!" she announced, turning toward the five seated captives on stage and giving them a deep bow.

The crowd once again burst into joyous applause. Oh, Gods… this didn't sound good.

"But before we begin the final phase, we are taking tonight to celebrate the brave souls who have given so much," she said significantly, turning to look up at the collection of huge screens adorning the warehouse sized back wall of the stage. Dekker's chair then swivelled on its own, startling him. The other chairs on the stage also turned to face the massive screens, equally surprising the other captives. It seemed they were being invited to watch the show as well.

The screens before them dissolved the pictures of couples and before them they started working in concert to project one massive image of a fairground. What…

'_Platorious 5. Our blessed 'Harvest Moon', has, over the last forty years, been home to our enticing 'Web market', drawing thousands and thousands of visitors per year to it's alluring shops and vending stalls,'_ a commentator's deep voice outlined as the screen flashed pictures of a bustling series of shops, store fronts and stalls selling everything from jewelry to food to electronic and other highly technical goods.

'_When the Trinity finally fell and the light found our world again, there was a consensus. Harvest Moon would be an ideal recruitment site. The appeal of this venue made it the perfect place to find appropriate volunteers for our cause,'_ the man's voice added. Volunteers? Was this bloke serious?! Who the hell would 'volunteer' for such treatment?

'_And now, thanks to our venerated and esteemed volunteers, our civilization is once again poised to become a universal force. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present...'_

The screen above displayed a group picture of about a hundred individuals. They clearly knew they were being photographed and apparently didn't object to it. The group was made up of many different species, all humanoid. And sitting in the row second to the bottom on the right, was him. The shock of brown tussled hair gave him away, as did the pinstriped suit. But it was the being sitting beside him in the picture that made his breath catch. It was Rene.

'_...our original group of Candidates.'_


	13. Chapter 13

Thank-you all for your patience in waiting for this chapter! Hopefully this chapter makes up for my lack of mid-week post-i-ness! Hopefully it also makes a little more sense of where I left you all at the end of the last chapter. This will, by no means, answer all the questions brought up by the last chapter, but hopefully it answers a few and makes you want to read on!

Allons-y!

Chapter sentence prompt: demigodwinchester submitted to writeworld

"Did you think I was joking?"

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 13: Presentation<strong>

The screen above displayed a group picture of about a hundred individuals. They clearly knew they were being photographed and apparently didn't object to it. The group was made up of many different species, all humanoid. And sitting in the row second to the bottom on the right, was him. The shock of brown tussled hair gave him away, as did the pinstriped suit. But it was the being sitting beside him in the picture that made his breath catch. It was Rene.

She was blonde, as she'd said, and every bit as attractive as he'd imagined in his dreams. No. Not imagined. _Remembered_. The determination in her features tugged at him as he stared, his eyes glued to the screen. The voice overhead boomed around him, but he wasn't hearing any of it. All he could focus on was Rene.

The picture finally dissolved. '_**And now, we're down to five. Five of the bravest, most enduring, intelligent and altruistic beings we've ever come across.**_'

On the screen, there flashed a video of a male Silurian standing in a deep blue room, studying an illuminated floor tile ahead of him while somewhere in the distance a rasping voice cried out in pain. Resolutely, the man stepped onto the lit section and an excruciating cry tore from his scaled lips. From somewhere along the row of chairs, someone hissed in a pained breath. The Silurian. This must be her mate.

'_**The hardships they've faced thus far have inspired us and made us that much more aware of what is at stake here,'**_ the deep voice of the narrator shared. '_**They've endured pain... thirst…'**_

On the screen an image of a dark skinned human female appeared, sitting slumped in a corner of a dark green room. Across from her sat a familiar looking tray of food, and on it the bowl of golden liquid she so clearly needed. The woman two chairs over from his let out a pained gasp. "Augusta…" she breathed, her voice cracking with emotion.

'_**Fear...'**_

The moving picture of the woman dissolved to show a female Argolin wearing a dreamscape interface helmet over her hive shaped cranium. Her features were contorted into a mask of pure terror and tears streamed down her pale yellow tinged cheeks. Dekker darted a look at the male Argolin down the row from him. The look on his face was one of tense control.

'_**Arousal...'**_

He truly wasn't ready for what he saw next on the screens. Perhaps he should've been, but honestly nothing could've really prepared him. In front of him, a video of a blonde human female appeared, showing her writhing on her cell floor in clear arousal. Her hands were clasped tightly and bound behind her back, her hips moving frantically against the hard ground as she panted and shouted his name. Dekker heard the audience behind him murmur, and some of them tittered as they watched the woman he cared about in the throes of unresolved need.

He felt his face flush with fury. How _dare_ they trivialize her pain. How DARE they! That they would do this to anyone in the first place was sick. That they would display it for all to see was horrific. Pulling at his bindings he found he was tightly fastened to his seat. A growl of frustration tore from him as Rene's whimpers filled the auditorium, the camera panned close into her face, showing her eyes squeezed tightly closed as she moaned his name over and over. Unable to even shift an inch in his bindings, a whimper issued from somewhere deep inside him in response to hers. The pain she'd endured for him made him feel sick.

"I'm so sorry," the man beside him said quietly. Dekker looked over to see the haggard looking orange hued male looking back sadly at him. He obviously understood.

'_**...and cold'**_ the announcer's voice chronicled.

A video of an orange skinned female now illuminated the screens above, making the man to Dekker's right suck in an anxious breath. The woman sat in an enclosure like he'd been in himself before he'd escaped. In the distance a male voice could be heard calling for her, but she was clearly unable to answer at this point. She was shivering violently, though her puffs of breath were coming at very slow intervals. She had apparently been nearing the end of the experiment at this point.

'_**But it's not only what they've endured that makes them worthy of our adoration. It's that they did what they did for people they didn't even know. In fact, our heroes still have no idea what their neighbouring cell mates actually meant to them before the trials began. If you've been watching our live broadcasts, you know that they have been administered an amnesiac that has rendered them incapable of remembering their previous lives. Even having taken personal love out of the equation, these incredible souls endured for the good of others. The well being of the people depending on them was more important to them than their own desires… more important to them than their very lives!'**_ he expounded.

'Having taken personal love out of the equation'... the words echoed in Dekker's mind. So all of these couples were together… loved each other in some capacity… before all of this. But how did these creatures know they'd react the way they did? There was a very real chance some might just let the other suffer, having no memory of them and no scruples. What happened to those 'candidates'?

'_**But the trials are not over yet.'**_ The music underscoring this sickening narration became decidedly ominous. '_**There is room for only one. One being who embodies the values we hold most dear. One being who will sacrifice anything for the good of those who rely on him. One being with the fortitude, endurance, and intelligence that will enable our society to enter a new age. That individual will be called, The Worthy One.' **_ The music swelled dramatically with this pronouncement. '_**These candidates have shown they have what it takes to be considered for this title. Now, however, they will have to prove they are worthy of remaining. And prove it, they will.**_

This being sounded so very certain of that, and that fact terrified Dekker more than anything else he'd heard today. It meant they had something… some_one_ they could use to make them do their bidding. That's why Rene wasn't here with him. She was going to be his motivation. He was sure of it.

'_**But before we celebrate and move ahead with our quest to find the Worthy One, let us honour those who have given their lives for this most incredible cause.'**_

The screens above them began showing picture after picture of couples of various species. The musical underscore was heart wrenching and lamentful. These people… they clearly hadn't survived their captor's 'trials'. These must be the ones he'd wondered about. The people who'd not been strong enough to suffer for a 'stranger'. Either that, or they'd suffered beyond what their bodies could handle. Gods… they _had_ been ready to let them die if need be! Once again, fury rose within him, making him that much more determined to get him and Rene out of here.

The litany of the deceased finally ended after exactly fifty-two couples had been highlighted.

'_**Rest in the Light of the Eternals, brave souls,'**_ the commentator intoned.

The thousands currently seated in the auditorium replied in deafening unison, "The Light of the Eternals."

After the booming reply, a hush fell over the audience and the screens before them all faded to house an image of three rising Suns. After almost a full minute of silence, the woman... Regent Elect Ushea Rulaimav… stepped forward to once again command centre stage. Her voice, full of verve and righteousness, then floated confidently over the audience. _"_Over the next days our remaining candidates will sacrifice even more than they've had to so far in order to prove their worthiness. Join us in supporting them in their quest by offering up your deepest wishes to the heavens. Eternals bless Rulazon!"

With that, the crowds stood and a raucous applause resounded through the stadium. The cheering lasted for minutes and even rose as the chairs of the captive panel were turned again to face the audience.

It seemed they were about to prove whether they were worthy of continued existence or not and this crowd was completely overjoyed over the fact. Fear pierced Dekker's hearts. There was no question now that these creatures had no difficulty letting their subjects die if that's what decided who was 'worthy'. And what would happen if he failed? He would die, but what would become of Rene? It seemed from the tribute earlier that these creatures seemed to do away with both individuals in the pair if one didn't measure up.

The image of Rene writhing on the floor in her cell once again filled his mind. He couldn't let her suffer any more. He knew that much. If they were going to use her safety to blackmail him into doing their will, it was going to work.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Dekker! DEKKER!" Rene shouted, fighting the grip of the metal man holding her fast against its chest.

In the distance, she could make out Dekker's form, fighting to get to her through the crowd of zombie-like people trundling forward for no known reason.

"DEKKER! RUN! GO! PLEASE!" she called, the metal man's hold on her remaining steadfast despite her voracious attempts to get away.

Despite her pleas, he kept coming. Pushing through person after person, getting closer and closer. "NOOOOOOOO!" she begged, sobbing as he neared. He was going to die if he got closer. If he got caught… that would be the end. They wanted him. Needed him. He wasn't 'compatible', but they knew somehow he needed to be caught in order to ensure their continued existence. And he knew it. He _knew_ how important he was to them. If they didn't apprehend him, they were at risk. If he remained free, their future was not assured. Yet he still came. Came to her rescue. Came to her side despite all that was at stake.

He was close now… only meters away. The anxiety and determination written in his features were truly unparalleled, and despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn't help but be happy she could see him so clearly again, even if this was the last time.

"Human," a deep voice boomed, as if over a loudspeaker.

Dekker was closer now… his outstretched hand nearly making contact with hers. Nearly. So close...

"HUMAN," the deep insistent voice called, followed by a shake of her arm.

The true physical contact by a live being is what finally yanked Rene from her desperate dream, startling her awake. Her eyes flew open and what they found made her heart nearly stop.

Dekker had been gone since the incident with the 'case', as he'd called it, and that had been many many hours ago. She had spent much of that time sitting by the vent, just listening for any sign they may be returning with him and when she wasn't doing that she was pacing her cell. Too soon, though, the nighttime setting for the overhead lighting heralded the resurgence of the soporific drug they gave her every evening. She knew she'd be asleep soon, and that very idea terrified her. He was still _gone_. They'd been separated before, but never all night. But what did that _mean_? Were they hurting him? Was he even still _alive_? That thought sent bolts of fear through her, fueling her desire to fight the sleep they were trying to induce. Finally though, unable to hold out any longer, her body pulled her under and she slept despite her valiant effort to fight the drug.

Now, having been pulled from her dream, she honestly could say this was the very last thing she'd expected before falling unconscious. Towering over her stood her captor.

She realized her mouth was gaping open as she stared at this creature, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't sure what she'd expected their captors to look like, but this wasn't it. She'd imagined maybe a monstrous stick-like creature with sharp pincers for hands or perhaps a fanged four legged saggy skinned ogre. If she hadn't been so surprised at finally seeing her captor face to face, she'd have honestly been enamoured of his appearance. His skin was dazzling. Green and blue swirls adorned his face and bare scalp. Even his hands held intricate patterns that made her want to stare at them.

"It is time," the towering alien informed her, jolting her from her silly thoughts. What the hell was she thinking?! Here she was, finally faced with the creature who'd been torturing her and her… Dekker… and all she could think about was how pretty it's skin was.

"Where's Dekker?" she asked, finally gathering her wits.

"It's time. You will come with us," it said. 'Us'? Sitting up all the way, she realized there were two more creatures just like him standing in the doorway.

"What for? Where are we going?" she asked, now fully realizing the gravity of what was happening. She was being moved… but to where? Were they going to finally kill her? Get rid of the test subject now that the experiments were done? Oh, God… maybe that's what had happened to Dekker... maybe they'd simply done away with him!

"You are needed for the next stage," the creature said kindly. Kindly? What… were they being all polite now? "Could you please come with us?"

Rene felt her brows furrowing. Were they really _asking_? They made it sound as if she had a bloody _choice_. "Um… what if I said no?" she hazarded.

The alien looked down at her with a decidedly startled expression before a broad grin spread on it's face and it let out a rather loud laugh. Turning to his colleagues he chuckled, "These humans always surprise me with their questions! Did you hear that?!" it said. The other two had already joined him in his laughter. Apparently she was quite the comedian.

Fury bubbled up inside her. "Did you think I was joking?! Listen… I don't know who you are, but this isn't funny. You've been holding us against our will and you've _hurt_ me and my friend. How can you just stand there and _laugh_!" she snapped, her anger over their situation now overflowing. She knew her comment wasn't probably the most thought out, seeing as making these creatures angry probably wouldn't get her anywhere but in more trouble, but she couldn't help herself. She was sitting on the ground of a cold cell, she was tired and hungry, and she'd lost the man she cared about most in the universe. She was clearly not accessing her most rational thoughts at the moment.

Rather than giving her the reaction she'd been expecting, the alien before her startled her by actually looking contrite. "I apologize. I did not mean to offend and I certainly would never want to make you feel unappreciated. I find your 'humanness' refreshing, that's all. You and the… your friend, you're a breath of fresh air around here, that's all."

She literally had no way to react to that statement. She was gobsmacked.

"Now, if you'd be so kind as to accompany us… your cooperation would be greatly appreciated," the alien requested in his deep voice.

Again, unable to come up with anything intelligent to reply with at the moment, she slowly stood. The creature smiled, clearly pleased she was finally cooperating. She darted a look at the two by the door, who also now sported more formal expressions. "Right this way," the one closest to her said, gesturing toward the open door.

Looking warily at the exit that only minutes ago she'd prayed would open, she felt anxiety rise again within her. They'd said she was 'needed for the next stage'. Given what she'd experienced so far, she knew this was going to be anything but good. She also knew she didn't have a choice. These creatures were massive, and even though they seemed downright cordial, she knew what they were really capable of. Then there was the fact that Dekker was missing and these aliens clearly had no intention of returning him anytime soon, if moving her was any indication. No… she was better off going peaceably with them. It was her only real chance of seeing Dekker again, assuming these creatures were keeping him alive for something. From the way they'd treated her, it seemed they still had use for them, so it gave her a sliver of hope. He might be out there somewhere.


	14. Chapter 14

I managed to get two chapters written this weekend *throws fist in the air*, so I decided to celebrate by posting sooner than usual! Enjoy, my dear readers!

**Chapter Sentence Prompts: From Tumblr**

_putthepromptsonpaper - _"This isn't real- this isn't real. Please, don't let me believe this is real."

_demigodwinchester submitted to write world - "_There isn't another option."

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 14: <strong>

Rene stepped out of her tattered scrub trousers, already having removed the manky top. As much as she resented having to do what her captors demanded of her, she couldn't help but appreciate the fact she was about to get clean.

She'd been shown to this room by her entourage of captors after a long walk down a number of oddly cheery looking corridors. One of the aliens accompanying her had opened the door and escorted her in while the other two remained outside in the hall and for one horrifying moment she'd thought the male alien was planning to clean her himself. Instead, though, he handed her a smooth bar of sweet smelling soap and a towel along with a set of clean scrubs and gestured toward the stall in the corner. She'd cast a suspicious glance at the enclosure, not entirely trusting it was designed for the purpose he was insinuating. It seemed he'd understood her trepidation, as he then stepped over to the stall and reached in to turn the dial on the wall. Immediately a shower of liquid sprayed down from the ceiling. As if to reassure her, he put his arm under the cascading drops, proving it wasn't acid or some toxic chemical. So it really _was_ a shower.

She'd taken a tentative step toward the booth, still unsure. Did he expect her to shower in front of him? "I, uh…humans need privacy for this bit," she tried.

Once again, it seemed she'd managed to say something amusing. This time, however, he knew better than to laugh out loud. A sort of amused smile found his lips, though, and he nodded. "Of course. Please clean yourself. We will collect you when you're done," he'd informed her.

Now, standing under the warm water, letting it sluice down her body, she allowed herself a moment to enjoy the feeling. As scared as she was about what was going to happen next and as terrified as she was for Dekker, her brain was literally beginning to shut down with the continued and constant anxiety. It seemed the water helped her focus and she couldn't deny she needed to. She was going to need her wits about her if she was going to get them out of here. She had to be vigilant and keep her eyes open for any opportunity that might offer itself to escape and find Dekker.

Standing with her face upturned to catch the falling water, she let her thoughts wander to the man she'd fallen for. A small smile found her lips. Man, that bloke could talk. Even if she actually had memories of her life before this, she honestly couldn't imagine herself having a more sensual 'first time' experience with someone than they'd had. The timbre of his voice and the mental caresses he'd given her… they had tied together to create an experience she knew couldn't ever be replicated with anyone else. This man… this incredible alien… she was already a goner for him. Amazing how she'd never actually laid eyes on him, yet she had no doubt in her mind that he was the one she was meant to be with.

A knock on the door interrupted her mental holiday from this nightmare. "Human, you are needed soon. Please finish your cleanse," the deep voice called from the other side of the door.

Adrenaline once again pushed through her veins, cruelly yanking her from the slight reprieve from anxiety she'd managed to give herself. This was it. "Yeah, alright," she called, quickly taking the soap in her hands to run over her weary body. They hadn't provided shampoo, so she scraped the bar of soap over her scalp and lathered it as best she could before rinsing it off. That done, she stepped out from under the spray to grab the towel sitting on the floor outside the shower stall and dried off quickly in the cool air of the room. Grabbing the pile of new scrubs they'd given her, she noticed that once again they hadn't provided her with knickers. Well, at least these were clean, she thought as she pulled them on. Small blessings.

Standing for a moment in the silence of the room, she gathered herself together and took a deep breath. No sense in prolonging the inevitable. "'M ready," she called out.

The door creaked open and the now familiar male stepped in. He looked her over from head to toe and was apparently satisfied with what he saw. She'd done as she was told. Nodding in satisfaction he intoned, "If you'll please accompany us," he gestured toward the hall.

"Wait," she said, finding some inner courage she hadn't known she had in her. "I'm not goin' anywhere until you tell me where Dekker is," she demanded, crossing her arms in what she hoped looked like a strong show of defiance.

Her captor let out a small sigh, darting a look back toward the door where his cohorts were talking between them. "Your mate is healthy," he said in a quiet voice. "He has not been compromised since you saw him last," he shared.

Rene dropped her own voice in response to this alien's seeming conspiritorial tone, "What's your name?"

The alien looked truly surprised by the question, but answered nonetheless. "I'm called Bruos."

"Bruos… I need you to hear me," she said, moving closer, purposefully taking one of his massive hands in hers. He startled a bit with her touch but didn't pull away. "Please… just let us go," she entreated, purposefully looking directly into his striking green eyes. "Can't you see… we're sentient beings just like you! I can see that you have feelings. We have feelings as well! I care about him. It kills me when he's hurting, don't you see? How would you feel if someone… some creature hurt your… your _mate_ like you've been hurting mine? Please… please help us," she pleaded.

The conflict on the face of this man before her was evident and clear. He was pained by her words, she could tell. "Ro-... Rene, I am truly sorrowed by what you have endured, but I cannot put the needs of one before the needs of a whole civilization. I know you do not understand yet, but you soon will. And when you do, hopefully you'll realize that your sacrifice and that of the Doc… Dekker… will not have been in vain," he explained with a look of true remorse. "Now, I'm sorry, but I do have to insist that you accompany us."

Her heart crumbled. For a moment she thought she might have gotten through to him. She thought maybe she'd found some shred of decency in this being. It seemed, though, that his perceived duty to his people won out. She wanted to expound on that very point with him. What kind of civilization was it that wanted to be build on the pain of others? She was about to say so, when one of the other creatures made a clear sound of impatience at the door. The one she'd been talking with… Bruos... alerted instantly, releasing his hand from hers. Once again he gestured her toward the door.

Knowing there was no choice at this point, she trudged barefoot past him, making sure to make very pointed and entreating eye contact with him as she did. He followed her into the corridor and they followed the other two guards who led the way. They didn't walk far this time before they apparently got to their destination. The door they stood in front of beeped and hummed as the largest of her captors placed his palm against a panel beside it. Apparently you had to be a… whatever these blokes were… to open it.

The panel apparently liked the alien who'd pressed it, as the lock finally released and the door swung open. Bruos ushered her in gently and then turned to join his peers just outside the door. "Bruos," Rene called just as he was about to close the door behind him. He turned, surprised by the use of his name. "Thank-you. For listening earlier. It's hard bein' in here, yeah?" she said, hoping he heard her underlying plea.

Bruos swallowed and his expression changed to one of seriousness. He nodded solemnly before turning and closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Rene watched the closed door for a moment, willing the tall alien to let her comment seep its way into his heart. Surely he had one. He hadn't seemed cruel, after all. Then again, any creature that could stand by and let torture just… happen… had to be cruel to one degree or other.

Sighing, she turned her back to the door and surveyed the room she'd been placed in. She was in a small enclosure. Even smaller than the cell she'd been in. The wall housing the door was solid, as were the walls on either side of her. The wall in front of her, however, was one smooth sheet of glass. Dark, impenetrable glass. Smoothing her clammy hands down the front of the new clean scrubs they'd given her, she approached the dark reflective barrier and cupped her hands around her eyes as she pressed her face closer to the glass. One way mirror. She couldn't make out any features, but there were clearly a couple of people moving on the other side. Tall people. Her captors.

Fantastic. She was on display for some reason. Whatever it was, the reason was very likely not a good one. A number of possibilities circled in her mind. Maybe they were going to do more experiments on her alone. Maybe they were done with the 'altruism' part of their testing and they were moving on to even more horrific things. Then again, why would they bother moving her for that? Unless part of the experiment involved her reaction to be observed.

That thought sent a fresh chill through her. What if they pumped that aphrodisiac into this room? The horrid thought of having people staring at her during such a heated moment made her ill. Then again, who's to say she didn't have an audience last time? After all, there was a camera in there. Oh, God. It was mortifying enough knowing she'd shown herself in such a way to Dekker… and she hadn't even really _shown_ herself visually to him. If she was honest with herself, she'd known it was very _likely_ they'd been watching the whole ordeal. What was the camera for, after all. An image floated through her mind of a crowd of scientists huddled around a computer screen taking notes about her state of arousal. A heated blush found her chest and face with the thought.

Then a fresh horror played through her mind. What if this was some sort of zoo? They'd certainly treated her like an animal so far. It was clear these creatures had little regard for the longevity and comfort of their captives. Maybe now the experiments were over and she was being displayed for the remainder of her life. An even worse scenario popped into her mind then. What if she was being _sold_ or something? Was this some sort of 'pet shop'? Were the beings she saw moving about on the other side of the mirror looking to buy a pet human maybe?

She was pulled from her musing by a shadow of movement on the other side of the glass. "Hello?" she called, once again pressing her face to the mirror in an effort to see past her reflection.

Just then, the lights on the other side of mirrored barrier came up and she could see dark shadowy forms moving about on the other side. Unable to look away, she realized the glass was slowly becoming more opaque. Staring intently, blinking often to make sure she wasn't just seeing things, she thought she could make out a chair with a figure seated in it.

Her heart thumped heavily in her chest as she deduced who this very well might be. They'd said he was alright. That he hadn't been hurt again since she was with him before. With each passing moment her breathing quickened as she was able to see more of the room opposite hers and the figure in the chair.

His hair was the first clear thing she was able to make out. It was a tousled halo of chestnut brown. Oh my God. Highlights of his face slowly became more and more clear, making her breath catch. It was him. Not just _him_, though. It was THE him. The 'Him' she saw in her dreams. From the deep brown eyes, the regal nose and the full bottom lip to his slender frame. He was sitting, bound to a chair not far from the glass wall and despite his situation, a genuine smile played on his lips. She hadn't been dreaming. She had been _remembering_! An astounded breath escaped her parted lips. "Dekker…"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

His assumed name issued from her lips and blessedly found his own ears through some sort of speaker system. It sounded like angels singing. Her voice was all he'd been thinking of since he'd heard her whimpered moans in that terrible auditorium.

"Gods, Rene... " he trailed off, his eyes drinking her in. She was… real. She wasn't just a photo, a video or a disembodied voice. She was here in front of him. His voice cracked a bit with emotion as he croaked, "You're really here."

"I can't believe you're in front of me," Rene nearly whispered, her thoughts clearly echoing his own. "You look just like I'd dreamed… like I imagined," she clarified. He smiled even wider. "Are you… did they hurt you again?" she worried.

"No… well, not physically, anyway," he shared, his expression sobering. "Rene… I have to tell you something..." he started.

A booming voice interrupted Dekker's comment over some sort of loudspeaker. '_**By way of celebration for your courage and self-sacrifice, the Candidates will take part in a feast before the second set of trials begin. We would like to extend an invitation to your mates as well, so they may share in your triumph.'**_

Behind Rene a door opened and a Rulazian walked in carrying a chair. Behind him, two more entered carrying a small table. From behind his own chair, Dekker also heard movement and in moments a table like the one they carried into Rene's cell appeared in front of him as well. The flurry of movement in both cells continued until both he and Rene were seated in front of an elaborate meal on opposite sides of the glass wall, both unbound and apparently alone. The Rulazians clearly wanted more candid moments for their viewing audience, he fumed inwardly.

They sat for a moment simply looking at each other before Rene's brows furrowed and her eyes filled with glittering sadness. "I was so worried," she exhaled in a small sob, a few tears escaping her whiskey eyes to trail down her cheeks.

Her distress made him crumble inside. "Gods, Rene…" he heard himself repeat, his hand coming up to push against the glass in a futile attempt to get closer to her.

Her own hand found its way to her side of the glass, mirroring his placement. "I thought… I thought they'd killed you. When you didn't come back, I thought…" she trailed off.

"I'm alright. I'm okay," he reassured her, knowing there really wasn't much point in saying it. She could _see_ he was alright, after all. Still, he had no other way of reassuring her.

"What… what happened to you?" she asked. "The last I heard from you… you'd been in some case or other… I didn't really understand. And then you were so quiet…"

"It was another one of their trials. They were trying to induce hypothermia. Basically freeze me to death. I put myself into a self induced coma before I could completely succumb," he shared.

"Oh, God, Dekker... I'm so sorry you had to go through that," she lamented. "I wish I'd known," she added, stroking her hand over his palm print on the glass.

"It's okay… there was nothing you could've done. Anyway… I was able to wake myself in their infirmary and then, well, I tried to find you, but they found me first," he sighed. "I did find out what's going on, though," he added.

Rene's eyes opened wider. "What? What did you find out?" she asked, now leaning forward even closer to the glass.

For a moment, Dekker simply sat, lost in her eyes. They were gorgeous. Caramel brown with small golden flecks lighting them from within. Even his dreams hadn't done them justice. They were incredible.

"Dekker?" Rene prodded, a worried look passing over her beautiful features.

"Oh… sorry. Just… your eyes… they're beautiful," he whispered, truly mesmerized by them.

Rene blushed an adorable pink with his pronouncement and she ducked her head a bit. "Um, thanks," she said shyly. "I'm, uh… I'm glad to hear they're not hideous. Haven't seen 'em yet," she laughed.

The sound was like a balm to his aching soul. He smiled. "Not hideous, Rene Taggart. Definitely not," he assured her.

"So, what did you find out," Rene asked, seemingly embarrassed by all the attention. Gods… even _that_ was attractive.

"I, uh… Well… it seems I was wrong about this being some sort of science experiement. It's definitely a series of trials, however," he shared. He took a deep breath in and released through his nose while trying to decide where exactly to start. Finally he said, "We've been 'recruited'," he emphasized with finger quotations, "to take part in some sort of test to find the 'Worthy One'. These creatures are looking for the perfect candidate whom they believe will somehow save their planet. And now it's apparently come down to five."

Rene's brows furrowed in concentration, trying to work out what he'd said. "Five? How many were there to start?" she asked.

"Fifty-two. Fifty-two couples."

Rene swallowed, letting that sink in. He knew what she was thinking. All those other people going through what they went through. That many people being tortured. "What happened to them?" she asked, her voice small.

It was his turn to swallow back emotion. "They… they're gone." He couldn't bring himself to say out loud what had become of them. He suspected she could figure it out.

Rene nodded slowly, her eyes sad and distant.

"I won't that happen to us," he promised. "I'll keep you safe, Rene."

Rene's eyes became clear and focused again. "What's going to happen now?" she asked, her expression serious. "That voice… the one over the loudspeaker…it said something about the second set of trials. Are they… they're gonna do it all over again, aren't they?" she said, fear colouring the normally beautiful tones of her voice.

"I believe so," Dekker admitted, definitely not wanting to. "But I think it's gonna be different this time. I think… I think it's just me this time," he added.

"Wha… What do you mean? Just you?" she asked, deeper worry finding her gorgeous features.

"I mean… the trials are going be between me and the other four contestants now. I don't think they're going to include you. At least… I dearly _hope_ they're not going to include you," he amended.

"They… these barbarians are just gonna torture you again?! But what's the point? Surely they can choose their… 'Chosen One', or whatever… based on what they've seen already, yeah? How much more could they possibly need to know?!" she said, her voice rising in frustration.

Dekker understood her feelings. He really did. This was inhumane and unconscionable. These creatures were using unwilling victims to find some ridiculous demigod figure that was supposed to save their world in one way or another. How he, or any of these other prisoners were supposed to do that, he had no idea. He did know, however, that there was no negotiating with these creatures. They'd made up their fanatical minds.

"This isn't real- this isn't real. Please, don't let me believe this is real," Rene lamented, looking up at the ceiling as if doing so might erase the reality of their seemingly hopeless situation.

"I'm just going to have to do them. The trials. There isn't another option," he intoned.

"But… what happens if you lose?" she said, anxiety now fully embodied in every word.

Dekker picked up one of the pieces of meat placed beautifully on the plate before him before offering, "I won't."


	15. Chapter 15

Whew! I wasn't sure about this chapter when I started it, but I think it ended up having the feel I wanted it to. Thanks to all who've been reading and commenting… I honestly appreciate it from the bottom of my evil little heart!

Chapter sentence prompt - putthepromptsonpaper**: **"It's just a game."

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 15: The First Trial<strong>

They hadn't been able to talk much longer after Dekker had announced his intention to willingly take part in the rest of the trials. Not because she hadn't wanted to, but because the ominous voice from above announced that they only had a few minutes left to 'consume their meals'. Despite not being particularly interested in the offerings they'd provided, Dekker had encouraged her to eat it. For all they knew, this was the last meal they may be offered for a long time and they needed to keep their strength up. She'd reluctantly agreed and ate as much as she could before her shrunken stomach balked at her insistence it squeeze more in. She'd seen the concerned look on Dekker's face on her pronouncement that she was full, but she literally couldn't eat another bite.

Minutes after eating, the Rulazians, as Dekker informed her they were called, descended upon them, removing the remaining food, the tables and the chairs in both their cells. After their rooms had been emptied and they were once again alone, they quickly moved to huddle close together on opposite sides of the glass. She didn't know how much time they'd be allowed to see each other, but she desperately hoped their captors would let them be together for the night.

"I was starting to remember a bit before they put me in this drug filled room, Rene," Dekker said, breaking the silence that had formed in the wake of their meal. "I guess I'd escaped exposure to the amnesic long enough that it started to wear off a bit. It wasn't much, but I did remember my name. I have two of them," he shared conversationally. "My people have a name that they share with everyone they meet. Mine is apparently 'The Doctor'," he informed her. "Unusual, I'll admit, but it definitely feels like it fits for some reason," he added.

Rene's heart skipped a beat. 'The Doctor'. The name sent resounding feeling of longing through her. "I… I like it," she stammered as the echoing importance of it played through her mind and body. There was a power behind the title… one she didn't truly understand, but one she knew held her spellbound for some reason.

"And then there's a name we share only with the one we're committed to," he continued. "Our mate. I… I wonder if you know it," he added tentatively. "Deep down, I mean. Not now, of course. You don't even remember your _own_ name now, for Rassilon's sake! Why would you be even close to remembering mine, after all," he babbled.

Rose startled a bit with the thought. He _had_ said that the other beings who'd taken part in this 'competition' were couples. Were _they_ a couple before this?! Then it hit her. Of _course_ they were! That's why she felt so certain they were meant to be together. Why she'd known, very instinctively, that she couldn't be without him. They were married! Or… er, 'mated', as he'd said. Then a thought came to her. Something he'd told her when they'd first met. "But...didn't you tell me you weren't, erm...bonded? You said you'd feel it. In your head," she clarified, recalling his explanation.

"Oh... Well, a Time Lord can have a mate but not be formally bonded. A Gallifreyan marriage is a step by step affair. Sort of like..." he paused, maybe considering how to describe such a process, "... like when humans get engaged," he explained. "That's when you promise you'll be together and give each other a symbol of that promise. On Gallifrey, that promise is the sharing of your name during a formal ceremony. A while after that, there's a big ol' party and afterward the couple bonds. It's sort of like delaying the reception and wedding night for a while until both parties are fully mentally prepared," he elaborated.

Rene felt her cheeks flush. "And you think we were maybe gonna do that? Bond, I mean?" she asked, biting her lip in an effort to stave off a ridiculous goofy grin.

It was his turn to blush this time and the pinkening of his cheeks made her stomach twist in affection. "I, uh... I don't know, of course, if that's maybe what we... I mean, if you and I had become, um..."

Rene decided right then to put this incredible man out of his misery. "Dekker," she said, interrupting his adorable ramble, "I would be _honoured_ if that were true."

A brilliant smile lit his face with her pronouncement. Then his expression sobered a bit. "I remember you, Rene. Not properly… not blatant memories... but you are the one I've been dreaming of. _This_ you, I mean. What I mean is… you are the exact person I've dreamt of. I think… I think maybe we were a proper couple. You know… before all this. Before they took our memories," he hazarded, obviously feeling a bit self-conscious about being so open.

Rene smiled. "I've been thinking the same thing," she admitted. "When I saw you, I… I knew you. You're the same man I've been dreaming of as well," she shared.

A deep bolt of adrenaline shot through her with the idea of saying what she was almost aching to say. Finally, deciding to throw caution to the wind, she did it. What the hell reason did she have to hold back, after all? If they _did_ somehow manage to escape, then surely this was something they'd said many times before, in which case it would be just an affirmation. But there was a very real chance they may never leave this place. If that was the case… if they didn't survive these barbaric trials… she didn't want to die without having told him. It was the truth, after all.

"Dekk…" She paused for a moment. That wasn't his name. Not his _real_ name. "_Doctor_," she amended, once again feeling the weight of his name inside her, "I… I'm not sure I should say this... but… I… I don't want to wait. I need you to know this now. Before anything else happens in this horrible place. I need you to know… I love you," she said softly, every ounce of her heart filling the words as they left her lips.

The Doctor's jaw dropped a bit, his eyes wide. Immediately she blushed. He didn't feel the same way. Not here. Not now. Maybe in some other life… a life that they lived before all this pain… maybe he felt that way about her there. Maybe.

His voice pulled her back from her reverie. "Rene… I… I love you too," he admitted, his voice filled with awe. "And somehow I know that I loved you before this. Before any of this."

Rene felt a thrill pulse through her, but even as a she felt joy bubble up inside her, the glass before her began to darken. Instantly, thrill turned to fear. "It's getting darker! The glass…" she informed him, her anxiety increasing as he slowly disappeared from view.

"It is?" the Doctor said, now also sounding alarmed. "I can still see you. I don't know if they'll keep the speakers on, though. Listen, Rene… I'll be right here, alright? Unless they make me, I won't leave your side, okay?" he promised.

"Alright," she answered, her hand meeting his over the glass. "I meant it, Doctor," she said, sounding more anxious than she'd have liked to. "I love you. Don't forget, alright? No matter what happens, don't forget," she said almost desperately, knowing this might be the last time she would ever hear his voice.

"I won't forget, Rene. And I promise this isn't the last time I'll say this… because if I have my way, you'll hear it everyday for the rest of your life. Rene Taggart, I..."

That's when the speakers cut out.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Rene woke the next morning to the same brutal bright lights that had wakened her every morning since she first woke in this horrid place. Despite their luminescent encouragement for her to open her eyes, she resisted, deciding instead to concentrate on the comforting vision of 'Dekker's' handsome features and the words that still twisted her insides in the best way possible when she thought of them.

He loved her. And God… she loved him too. She'd meant it when she'd said it, and she couldn't imagine any life where she might not. If there was one… a universe or an existence in which she didn't love him… she never wanted to go back to it. Even if it meant never leaving this living hell, she'd chose this life over one without him in it.

'_**Good morning Candidates and Mates!**_' a female voice boomed over the speakers, filling her room with sound. She jumped nearly a foot with the jolting noise, her heart pounding furiously as the voice continued to talk. '_**We trust you enjoyed your meal and that you had a good night's rest.'**_

Rene wished dearly she could actually show this being just how bloody 'thankful' she was for their hospitality.

'_**So far you've all been tested for your resilience, your ingenuity, and your sense of altruism. These are the core qualities were are looking for in our 'Worthy One', but they are not the only characteristics we require. The successful candidate must also exhibit many other qualities and there are a number that we saw from each of you. For that, we would like to congratulate you all for your valiant efforts during the first trial.'**_

First trial? What first trial? Had De… the Doctor already gone through some sort of test… some painful exercise already today?! Cupping her hands in front of her eyes, Rene plastered her face anxiously against the glass. Training her eyes, she tried to make out anything on the other side. She wasn't sure, but she thought she could make out the shadow of the Doctor's outline standing just on the other side of the glass. A wave of relief pushed through her. He was still there.

'_**If you all would be so kind to turn toward the wall to the right of the door to your rooms...'**_ the voice invited.

Unable to resist, Rene turned to do as she was bid. Through the first layer of 'wall' the white of a screen shone through. Suddenly, a picture of five individuals filled the screen. All five were dressed in scrubs.

'_**For the benefit of the mates, we've included this orientation to the final trials,'**_ the voice informed. '_**These are the five final Candidates. Each has exhibited skills and tenacity far beyond those of their fallen peers.'**_ Rene took in each of their serious expressions, including the Doctor's. Their faces told of the horrid experiences they'd been made to live through, but each held a sort of determination as well.

On the screen, then, a picture of many many couples sitting in organized rows flashed before her. Oh God. These are the couples the Doctor had told her about. '_**So many tried, and failed, to live up to the high standards required to be considered one of final five. Each of the remaining Candidates, however, proved that they have all the required traits and, in addition, demonstrated superior problem solving skills as shown by their escape from their trial rooms. These final five have let their exceptional natures shine through and have proven that they are worthy of continuing the very prestigious journey toward becoming the Worthy One. Now one of these incredible individuals will complete the trials and will live as a venerated member of our people. He, or she, will live out the remainder of his or her days in the company of his or her mate. But there can be only one,'**_ the commentator repeated.

Rene's heart stopped. They were going to kill all but one couple.

'_**And with the first trial already completed, we would like to announce the names of the four successful candidates!'**_ the voice said with enthusiasm. '_**The nation already knows the nature of the trial and what the criterion for success was. Our Candidates, however, do not. It is for their benefit that we will recount them,'**_ the commentator informed them.

On the screen flashed all the faces of each of the five candidates as they watched the screen before them. Bile rose in Rene's throat as each of their terrified faces surveyed their own live expressions.

'_**Our Candidates were observed throughout their meals and the following bonding time with their mates last night for the following traits,'**_ the voice proclaimed.

Rose's stomach turned. Oh my God. Last night… while they talked… while they reunited… it had all been a test! Even at their most unguarded they were being tested! The very idea was so bitterly unfair. It was one thing when it was clear they were being evaluated… as if that wasn't bad enough. This, though… this was terrifying. They'd had no idea they were being tested. They'd been unguarded and uncensored.

'_**To our deep encouragement, all demonstrated one of the traits we were looking for. That is the trait of commitment.'**_

The video then moved to a shot of a reptilian female sitting across from a male reptile… obviously her mate. Like she and the Doctor had, the woman in question placed her scaley fingers on the glass and her mate did the same in response. "I will win this for you, Salnoss," she assured him. "You are the reason I've made it this far and I will not let these creatures harm you any further," she confirmed, her expression hard.

Another shot appeared, this time featuring what appeared to be a male. It had a rather cone shaped head with green and yellow hair adorning it. "I promise you, Rima… I will get us out of here. You are my reason for being and there will be an end to this. And end in which we are together," he assured her.

Rene's heart broke as she watched these beings proclaim their dedication to their 'mates'. Another two 'Candidates'… one human female and an orange hued male… confirmed their level of commitment to saving their mates from pain. Finally, the video flashed on the screen of her and the Doctor. It was surreal watching his gorgeous face share such intimate promises, now knowing he was doing so in front of an entire nation. She felt remarkably violated watching it. They were impassioned words that should've been just between the two of them. Instead, they were being used to judge them. Judge _him_. "I won't that happen to us," he'd promised. "I'll keep you safe, Rene," his voice played over the loudspeaker.

'_**As you can see, our Candidates showed their dedication to these trials. They are very aware of what is at stake, and all demonstrated their level of commitment,'**_ the narrator explained. '_**Another trait our Candidates were tested for was confidence. While all seemed dedicated to their mates, not all demonstrated the same levels of confidence in their ability to succeed.'**_

The screen showed the orange hued male. "I… I just… I don't know how much more I can take," he admitted, his face morphing into one of anguish. Rene's heart broke. This poor creature admitted, in what he assumed was a candid moment, that he was hurting. That this was taking him to the very brink of tolerance. There should've been no shame in it. If he'd made it this far for his mate, he surely would make it further. But these creatures… apparently their captives had to maintain a calm, cool demeanor while being threatened with imminent torture and possible death. The very expectation made her blood boil.

'_**And finally, there were a few who demonstrated traits beyond what was expected of them from this trial. Two demonstrated the trait of honesty.'**_

Her own face filled the screen then. "I need you to know… I love you," she heard her own voice say only for him. It hadn't been though… only for him, had it?

She watched the screen as the video shifted to the Doctor's face, slack with amazement. "Rene… I… I love you too," he breathed.

Rene's heart truly stopped beating. The words, held in her heart, were being broadcast for the entertainment of a whole nation. She felt herself burn inside with fury. How _dare_ these creatures _judge them_ based on how willing they were to divulge their feelings to someone else. To someone they didn't even remember before this! The fact that the Doctor saw it in his heart to reply to her declaration was a testament to their comfort with their own feelings. What if they hadn't felt so comfortable? What if she hadn't taken the chance to tell him?!

Her internal turmoil played overtop of the next Candidate's declaration of love to her mate. It was the other female human who'd found it in her to admit her real feelings for the person she was willing to give her life for.

'_**And now… the ruling,'**_ the narrator's voice announced. '_**The following four candidates will move on to the next trials. They are….'**_ the voice paused, allowing a swell of dramatic music to take prominence for a full two agonizing seconds. '_**... the human female, Shandra!'**_ A shot of the woman they'd just shown glowed on the screen before her. Her face looked completely overwhelmed and her eyes glistened with moisture at the pronouncement. The face of her mate then joined Shandra's on the screen, her hands brought up to cover her mouth in relief and horror. They'd passed.

'_**... the Argolin, Torin!'**_ the deep voice announced. The male with the cone shaped cranium appeared on the screen, his face a study in tense determination. His mate's face also appeared beside his on the screen, though her expression was clearly less contained. She looked noticeably relieved.

'_**... the Time Lord, the Doctor!'**_ the announcer heralded. Rene's legs nearly gave out on hearing his name. Her feelings warred within her, tossing between desperate relief and complete mortification at what was in store for the losing couple.

'_**... and… the last individual who will move on as one of the top four...'**_ the music swelled again dramatically as the shot on the screen morphed to include the last two candidates… the reptilian woman and the orange skinned male.

'_**... the Silurian, Chahst!'**_

The shots on screen moved to close-ups of the two remaining candidates. The Silurian looked distinctly pleased, but it was the look on the other man's face that tore at Rene's heart.

The screen then dissolved to show only the orange male. '_**We would like to take a moment to celebrate the life and sacrifices made by the Towkin, Ralin,'**_ the voice said, seemingly reverently.

A moving tribute to Ralin then played while a live video feed of his face …the very picture of anguish… was shown in the corner of the screen. The tribute went on for a full minute and a half before it faded and the live feed of his face filled the screen once again.

'_**In deference to this candidate's bravery, perseverance, and altruism, he will be permitted to speak with his mate for the last time.'**_

"No!" Rene shouted up to the ceiling. "Don't do this!" she demanded, her fury spilling over. It wasn't that she didn't want this poor, poor man to be able to say good-bye… she didn't want him to have to say bloody good-bye in the first place! He deserved more! He DESERVED not to be fuckin' killed for their insane cause! "STOP! DON'T KILL HIM!" she cried as loud as she could.

Beneath her the floor lit up and with the light came pain. Crippling, overwhelming pain. A cry tore from her, filling the small room she was confined in. It seemed to last an eternity, but finally… blessedly… it ended and she crumpled to the floor.

Unable to look up at the screen on her wall, she then heard the heartfelt plea of the Towkin filter through the haze of pain slowly fizzling out of her body. "Please… don't do this. And if you must… please, _please_... release Bina. She has done nothing to deserve this. Please…" he begged.

'_**Thank-you Rolin,'**_ the announcer said solemnly. '_**On behalf of the Rulazian people, we want you to know your sacrifice will never be forgotten. May the you live on in the Light of the Eternals!'**_ the voice proclaimed.

Not wanting to, but unable not to, Rene found herself looking up at the monitor. On the screen a blinding light flashed, filling Rolin's cell. When the searing light fell away, the cell was empty. Panning back, the camera took in the pile of ash on the floor of the small room. Rene's breath caught. They'd done it! They'd killed him. In front of thousands of viewers. Tears welled in her eyes on seeing what was left of the poor man.

On screen, his mate was revealed, her face completely stricken. She dissolved into tears and fell to her knees, dropping her head in her hands. '_**We heard Rolin's pleas. How could we not. We can not, however, allow his mate to carry on, for we need the utmost cooperation from our remaining candidates. Motivation for continuing to try their best needs to be unconditional. For that reason, Bina, we are sorry to share that you too will be end your journey here.'**_

Bina's head threw back from her hands, her captor's words sinking in. Looking around the room fearfully, she stood again, backing up against the back wall. '_**Live in the Light of the Eternals!'**_ the commentator declared.

Her cell then lit up as if they'd set an explosion in it. Rene's throat involuntarily released a cry in sympathy as she watched the light consume the space. When it settled, the camera once again panned back to reveal a pile of ashes where Bina had once stood.

Unbidden, a soul deep sob left Rene's body. They'd demolished two live beings in front of a nation full of viewers! How? How could they? Her stomach turned, bile filling her throat. She was going to be sick.

On the screen before her, the announcer then went on as if nothing had happened. '_**Our remaining Candidates will meet their second challenge later today. In the meantime, our viewers are invited to watch our special feature, 'The life of an Argolin', which is a tribute to one of our remaining revered candidates… Torin. Join us later also for our live broadcast of 'Trial Two','**_ the voice cordially invited.

The screen before her went blank, leaving Rene sitting looking at the wall in utter disorientation. Surely that hadn't just happened. Surely she'd just been dreaming and she'd wake soon, wiping her eyes in thanks that it had all just been a terrible, terrible dream.

It hadn't, though, had it? It had been real. Too real. "It's just a game", she heard herself whisper. It was all just a game for these creatures. Sure… they professed it to be some sort of 'Saviour project', but in the end, it was just a game to be broadcast for the entertainment of their people.

The image of that poor woman… the mate of the man who'd admitted he was frightened… floated before her eyes. That could easily have been her. The man in question could've been the Doctor.

Tears gathered in her the corners of her eyes and spilled, unnoticed, as she stared ahead at the now blank wall ahead of her. How were they ever going to survive this… and at what cost? What good was it to win if so many others lost?

A sob left her throat and she curled in on herself, hugging her knees to her chest. She didn't remember ever praying before, but she decided now was as good a time as any to take it up. Calling on every single god she could think of, she sent out a silent plea. Please… _please_... help. Help us _all_.


	16. Chapter 16

Alright, my dear, dear readers… here comes the next trial…

Chapter sentence prompts from Tumblr:

writeworld : "Flattery will get you everywhere."

demigodwinchester submitted to writeworld : "You're the type of person they write books about, not me."

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 16: The Second Trial - Part 1<strong>

The familiar tray was slid through the slot in the door only minutes after the broadcast but the Doctor barely noticed. His eyes were still glued to the woman he loved who sat huddled in a ball in the middle of her cell, her knees pulled up to her chest in an effort to find some comfort.

What they'd just witnessed had been as traumatic as anything he could imagine, and given his active imagination, that was saying something. The faces of those that were now gone were still playing before his eyes, their grief and horror etched into his mind. Like him, he was sure they'd had no idea they were actually being tested while they shared their intimate thoughts with each other, and for that oversight, they'd been ruthlessly slaughtered.

Now, as he watched Rene, her small form so close but so very frightened and alone in the other room, a fierce protectiveness filled him. He felt for these other 'Candidates'. He did. But now he was responsible only for Rene. If there was anything in the universe he could do to save them all, he would, and if any glimmer of an opportunity presented itself to do so, he wouldn't hesitate. However, if it came down to saving them or saving her… there was no question which he'd choose.

He dearly wished she could see him right now as well as he could see her. At least then he could be _some_ sort of support for her. At the moment he was completely useless to her and it was breaking his hearts. Bringing his hand up to the window in a futile effort to reach out for her, his eyes rested on the plain of her back, watching it shake slightly as she cried. Every cell in his body ached to hold her. To comfort her and tell her he'd take care of her.

He was lamenting his inability to do just that when the door behind him scraped open making him scramble to his feet. A Rulazian entered his room carrying a chair and placed it in front of the glass facing Rene's cell. Before he could ask any questions, the tall male disappeared back out the way he'd come.

Just then, through the glass wall he spied Rene's door opening. Turning back to the barrier, he watched as Rene became aware of the presence of two Rulzaians entering and quickly stood.

The massive aliens entered carrying a small table between them and on it stood a three foot tall-ish square metal framed structure. At first glance it looked like a miniature box girder scaffolding like you'd see in human skyscraper construction sites in the 20th century. Beside it on the table sat a tray that held a number of unusual looking tools… some small and delicate ending in hooks or sharp points, and others more substantial that seemed to be for the purpose of hammering or punching holes.

Rene looked on in clear anxiety as the imposing guards placed the table directly in front of the glass. Her lips moved… she was asking them something. The Rulazians seemed to ignore her, but apparently insistent on being heard, Rene approached one of them, saying something, obviously more impassioned this time. What was she doing? The male before her cast a glance down at her, but said nothing in response as far as the Doctor could see. His stubborn, brilliant girl was going to have none of that, though. Moving in so that she stood head to belly with the towering male, the Doctor watched her lips move and her eyes narrow as she spoke once again. As if to punctuate her last words, she planted her hands on her hips and stood glaring up at the guard, her expression one of determination.

Part of him was desperately proud of her for standing up and trying to make them listen. Another part of him, though… the protective part… wished she'd just stop goading this bloody massive ogre. He couldn't protect her from here, and if she wasn't careful… well, these creatures didn't seem to have a problem forcibly 'training' their captives into compliance. The Doctor watched worriedly as the guard finally replied with something before taking her by the elbow and leading her firmly to sit in the chair.

Rene looked decidedly put out, but she didn't fight back, much to the Doctor's desperate relief. The man stood beside her for a moment, talking and gesturing toward the fierce looking contraption on the table. The Doctor's anxiety shot up again. Was he going to hurt her with that thing?! Just as he was about to start banging on the glass in a bid to distract this massive oaf from whatever torture he had in mind for his beautiful girl, the Rulazian nodded solemnly and turned toward the door. The Doctor watched as Rene swallowed, anxiety clearly etched on her attractive features as she watched the Rulazians leave.

'_**Candidates!**_ the loudspeaker resounded, filling the Doctor's cell. It must've filled Rene's cell as well, as she startled and looked around. '_**Welcome to the second trial.'**_ There was a lull in the announcement then, prompting the Doctor to look around his room. Were they going to project something on the screen again? He fervently hoped not. So far nothing good had come of screen watching, that's for sure. As he turned back toward the glass the voice spoke again. '_**In front of your mate you'll see a table has been placed and on it, the 'Candidate Conundrum'. This device was created specifically for the purposes of these trials. You are required to direct your mate to successfully attain the jagged red device enclosed in the centre of the structure. You will need to choose the implements your partner uses to get past each of the barriers between him or her and the target. In addition, he or she is unable to see the wedlow particle beams crisscrossing through the structure. You will have to guide your partner around them.'**_

The Doctor swallowed. Wedlow beams were harmless in and of themselves, but they were generally used to activate switches of various kinds. That meant there was something that could actually be activated in this menacing looking structure; something that was very likely completely the opposite of good.

'**There is no time limit to this task, but the efficiency with which you and your partner achieve the goal will be factored into your success rating. Good luck, Candidates. May the Light of the Eternals shine through you.'** With that, the overhead speaker went quiet.

The Doctor and Rene sat quietly for a moment taking in what they were just told. He was supposed to help Rene access this… target… inside the belly of this imposing looking monster. Apparently Rene felt similarly about it, as her eyes were widened in examination of the structure before her.

"Rene?" he tried, wondering if they'd turned his speaker on yet. She looked up instantly, relief obvious in her features.

"Doctor? Did you hear all that?" she asked, worried.

"Yeah… can you see me?" he asked, guessing the answer but hoping maybe the wall between them might be becoming more opaque.

"No. I… I don't think they're gonna let me see you," she offered, her anxiety evident.

"Right," he said in resignation. "Well… it looks like we'd better do this," he said, feigning confidence.

"But…" she started, looking helplessly at the monstrosity before her.

"Rene… you can do this. _We_ can do this, yeah? I need you to believe that, alright?" he encouraged.

Rene swallowed and nodded, visibly shoring herself up. "Yeah. Alright. We can do this," she echoed, purposefully injecting her voice with assuredness.

"That's my brilliant girl," he said, his hearts filling with pride. This small human was so bloody tenacious. All it took was some confidence in her and she rose to the occasion.

"So… what do I do?" she asked, biting her full bottom lip, looking at the contraption before her with determination.

"Just give me a tic to examine it," the Doctor requested. Sitting on the chair, he took a calming breath and leaned in to get a better look at the device through the glass. The half empty metal frame reminded him of a tall unfinished office building. There were barriers placed in random positions throughout the structure only partly enclosing square segments inside the framework. It looked for all the world like the builders of this miniature building simply abandoned the project mid-way. Each of these barriers...'walls' and 'floors', for lack of better terms... housed what looked like complicated gate and lock type of mechanisms, each of them different. The particle beams they'd described were indeed visible from his side, with at least ten of them crisscrossing throughout the girdered structure. In essence, this thing was like a 3D maze of sorts.

Taking a concentrating breath, he visually traced and catalogued all the most logical pathways around and through the 'rooms' of the structure. There were, by his calculations, at least six different ways the target in the centre of the thing could be obtained using the tools provided. It actually looked rather straightforward, if he was honest… and that very fact made him nervous.

Taking another deep breath, he started. "Alright, Rene. I think I've got it," he began. "See all those tools on the table beside the structure? Take up the one that's second to the right," he instructed, looking at a three inch thin metal stick ending in a small hook.

Rene's tongue found her top front teeth as she looked down at the choices of tools before her. Grabbing up the one he'd suggested, she looked up blindly toward the glass. "Got it," she advised.

"Right. Now… we have to disarm a few of the doors to the inner 'rooms' for lack of a better word so you can maneuver your hand and arm around more easily inside the structure," he shared. "So first I want you to move to face the left side of the structure," he informed her.

"My left or yours?" she asked, looking at the structure head on.

"Oh, right. Yours," he clarified.

She did as she was asked and stood waiting for her next move. "Okay. Now… I'm basically going to refer to the structure as if it's a building, alright? It's just easier to describe it that way. That alright with you?" he asked, hoping to make this process as human friendly as possible.

"Yeah. Sounds good," she agreed.

"Okay. So… on the bottom floor, you're basically looking at six entryways. You're going to insert your hand… very slowly… into the third opening from your left. Make sure, once your hand is in, that you keep it in that 'room'. That's to say, don't lift the hook or your hand up once you're in, alright?"

Rene swallowed. "Right," she agreed. Taking a steadying breath, she did as she was told, keeping her hand very still once it entered the structure.

"Good! Now… straight ahead there's a metal wall in the way. We need to get through it. On the top left corner of that wall, there's a small divot. Insert the hook into the little hole to pull the wall down."

Rene bit the tip of her tongue and tried to see the little notch he was talking about.

"Do you see it?" he asked, desperately wishing it was him instead of her having to do this. He knew one false move would mean pain in some form or other for her and the very idea made his stomach tighten in anxiety. They wouldn't have set up such an elaborate puzzle without some booby traps thrown in for increased viewer ratings, after all.

"Ummm…" she hummed, peering in through the transparent side of the building as best she could, "Yeah! There!" she said, moving the hook up carefully to catch the divot in the top corner. With a little tug, the Doctor saw the door drop straight down into the 'room' below the one she was working in.

He hadn't realized it, but he'd been holding his breath and his respiratory bypass had kicked in. Disengaging it, he let out a sigh of relief. Barrier one… gone.

"Alrighty!" he said enthusiastically, "Well done! Molto bene!" he beamed. She couldn't see him, of course, but he hoped she could hear the support for her in his voice. "Okay… now, pull your hand out again carefully and pick up the tool that's third in on the right."

"Okay," Rene agreed, pulling her hand out as he'd instructed. Taking the specified tool in her hand she looked at it for a moment. On the end of it a sort of metal pin that stuck out at a 90 degree angle.

"Now… go back in the same way you did last time. This time you're going to move your hand further in so it's in the room you just opened the door for. Remember… once your hand is in there, keep it as still as you can, alright?"

"Yeah, okay," she agreed, her voice tight. Sliding her hand in carefully, she got to the room he'd specified and waited.

"Good. Now carefully bend the tool up so the end of the pin is pointing at the middle of the other side of the door from the one facing you. Do you see what I mean?" he asked, hoping he'd explained it well enough.

Rene's face scrunched in concentration for a moment before she nodded. "I think so," she said, bending the tool upward so it was at a 90 degree angle to her wrist and the pin faced the middle of the door.

"Good. Now… I know you can't see it, but there's a small hole in the centre of the door near where the pin is pointing. You're going to have to push the pin directly into that hole. I'll talk you through it, alright?"

Rene nodded, her teeth chewing her lower lip once again.

"Right. So… slowly… _very_ slowly... keeping the tool perpendicular to your wrist, pull it toward you so the pin hits the centre of the door above your hand," he instructed.

"Alright," she agreed. Very slowly, she pulled her hand back.

"Stop," the Doctor said as the pin neared the door. "You need to shift the pin a hair to the left. Only a hair," his instructed, doing his best to keep his voice calm.

Rene did as he'd suggested and even more slowly pulled her hand toward her so the pin pushed the centre of the door above. An audible click issued from somewhere inside the structure and the door slid directly up to reveal the 'room' in front of it. Rene sighed a relieved breath out, as did the Doctor.

"Right. You're doing brilliantly, Rene. Really. How are you feeling?" he asked, honestly concerned. Sweat beaded on her brow and she clearly looked exhausted.

"'M fine. Just… this is stressful, yeah?" she admitted. "Anyway… let's keep goin'," she suggested, giving the glass wall before her a confident smile.

The Doctor's hearts filled. "Rene Taggart… you're incredible. Every tiny human part of you," he grinned.

Rene's tongue peeked out between her teeth for a moment in a happy, and ridiculously arousing way. "You know… flattery will get you everywhere, Doctor," she grinned, lifting an eyebrow playfully despite the ridiculously stressful situation she was currently in.

And maybe it was that very thing… her brilliant tenacity… that made her comment shoot straight through him, wakening a part of him that should _definitely_ be taking a nap right now. "It's hardly flattery, Rene. You're honestly... breathtaking. In all the ways I can think of describing," he said softly. "I could write a book just cataloguing all the things that make you incredible. And when we get out of here, I may do just that. Then I'm gonna go through them all with you so you, one by one, so you understand why I care for you so much," he vowed.

Rene smiled at his comment, casting her eyes down shyly. Oh, but GODS… even _that_ was sexy. "You're the type of person they write books about, not me," she shared. "I mean… you're a Time Lord! You're like… a superhero, for heaven's sake! Even these… Rulazians… they agree. You're special. _You're_ the one who's incredible, Doctor. I'm just a human. A pretty lucky one, I reckon, if I somehow got hooked up with you," she smiled honestly.

The Doctor's hearts stuttered with her words. Did she really think she was somehow _less_ than he was because she was human? "Please don't say things like that, Rene … things that make it sound like you're anything less than, well… than my reason for living." It sounded dramatic, but it was the truth.

Rene's breath hitched a bit and tears sprung in her eyes with his admission. Despite that, a beautiful smile found her features. "You know all the right things to say," she informed him softly.

He smiled. "Yeah… this body seems to have a neverending supply of words at the ready," he admitted.

Rene laughed.

"Now… we should probably press ahead with this ridiculous puzzle, yeah? Before our captors get bored with us?" he suggested.

The comment sobered her a bit, but didn't completely dissipate her smile. "Yeah, I suppose," she agreed. "Okay… what's next?" she sighed, refocusing her attention on the structure before her.

Doing the same, the Doctor painstakingly talked her through another three doors. It had taken about twenty minutes and a few curses, but now there were only two barriers left and she would have the target in her hand.

"Okay, Rene. There is a beam… one of those they mentioned that you can't see… it crosses the bottom eighth of the next room. This time when you go in you're gonna have to be extra careful not to let your hand drop too low, okay?" he advised.

"Yeah, alright," she agreed.

Just as the Doctor was about to tell her which tool she'd need before she immersed her arm back into the belly of this metal beast, a piercing scream echoed through the walls of their cells.

"What was that?!" Rene jumped, looking worriedly around.

Dread filled him. "It's probably one of our fellow prisoners," he intoned, knowing that there was no 'probably' about it.

"Oh my God," Rene whispered, her hands moving to cover her mouth in horror.

They took a moment just to listen, but when no other noises met their ears the Doctor said lowly, "We should keep going, Rene."

"But…"

"We have no choice. We have to keep going," he advised her, trying to get her attention back on the task. "The only way we're going to get out of here and maybe help anyone else is to finish this."

Swallowing thickly, she finally nodded in agreement. As much it felt wrong to blithely continue with this task, the Doctor knew they needed to press ahead if they were going to get out of this alive.

"Right. Now… " he continued, doing his best to push aside his concern for his fellow candidates, "...this next barrier… I suppose technically you don't really need a tool, but we're gonna use one. It's just a button, but the trick is that the button is _just_ above the level of the beam. We're gonna use one of the tools to push it. Less chance of breaking the beam that way," he instructed.

"Good," she agreed solemnly. "Okay… which tool?" she asked looking down at the array before her.

"Let's use… how about the one on the far right?" he directed, looking at a four inch stick ending in a jagged sort of brush. "Is the tip pretty hard?" he asked.

Feeling the bunched bristles with the tips of her fingers she answered, "Yeah… it's pretty dense. I think it'd be able to push a button."

"Okay… let's use that then. So… you'll have to go in carefully… I know you're having to twist your arm a good bit now. We'll take it slow," he advised.

Rene nodded and began threading her hand and arm through the structure the same way she had before.

The Doctor sucked in a breath as her hand accidently nearly brushed one of the inner doors with her elbow. "Mind the doors, Rene," he advised.

"I know, I know" she said anxiously, her face flushed with the effort of being so precise with her movements.

Finally she got her arm inserted so her hand was close to the second last door. "Right… stop. You've got the tool up a bit too high. Slide it to the left a bit and then lower it two centimetres," he told her. "Do it very slowly," he added in a hushed voice.

Almost painfully slowly, Rene moved the tool to the left, as he'd advised, and then…

...all hell broke loose.


	17. Chapter 17

Alright, my lovelies! The rest of the second trial is ready for your perusal. Enjoy!

Chapter sentence prompt from Tumblr -

writeworld : I can't do this without you.

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 17: The Second Trial - Part 2<strong>

"Right… stop," the Doctor warned, watching Rene manipulate the bristle ended metal stick. So far she'd managed brilliantly, wielding whatever tool he'd instructed her to use break down barriers between her hand and the coveted jagged red target that still taunted them from the middle of the structure. Her brilliance didn't protect her from physical fatigue and surprise boobytraps, however, and with each calculated movement she attempted within the miniature building the Doctor felt his hearts nearly stop.

"You've got the tool up a bit too high. Slide it to the left a bit and then lower it two centimetres," he advised. "Do it very slowly," he added in a hushed voice, once again holding his breath as he watched her take in his instructions.

Almost painfully slowly, Rene moved the tool to the left, as he'd advised, and then…

'_**Congratulations to Chahst the Silurian! The first Candidate to successfully talk her mate through the trial!'**_ a voice on the loudspeaker boomed around them.

Rene's body jumped instinctively with the startlingly loud instruction and the Doctor watched as the tool she held wobbled and dissected the beam just below where she'd been holding it.

From that moment on the entire event felt like it was was going by in slow motion. The beam broke and the door just above where her fingers held the tool dropped down, it's gleaming razor sharp edge slicing the ends of two of Rene's fingers clean off as it slammed closed from above. A scream of pain and surprise tore from Rene's throat.

"DON'T PULL YOUR ARM OUT!" the Doctor shouted, jumping up from his chair in complete panic.

She didn't seem to hear him, though, and her body responded as anyone's would… it tried to pull the offended appendage away from the source of the pain. Unfortunately, her elbow caught the very door he'd worried about her touching earlier. A pulse of electricity flew through her and another scream issued from somewhere deep inside her.

"**RENE! STAY! STILL! DON'T MOVE!"** he commanded as strongly as he could manage.

Pained cries continued to pour from her, but it seemed she actually heard him and she stopped moving. Relief enveloped him even as he watched tears streak down Rene's cheeks. At least if she wasn't moving nothing more would happen to her. The inside of the structure already looked like a war had been fought in it. The entire inside of the building where her hand had been was now painted with her blood.

It took everything the Doctor was not to holler vulgar curses at the top of his lungs. Angered pounded through him. If he could kill with a thought, these Rulazians would be dead three times over by now. He wanted nothing more than to make each and every one of them suffer exactly as they'd made Rene suffer during her incarceration here.

Gathering himself together, he tried to reign in his fury. Right now he needed to focus on Rene and get her out of there. "Rene…" he heard himself croak over her continued whimpers, his voice choked with emotion, "you need to slowly take your hand out. Can you do that?" he asked gently.

Rene nodded and clenched her jaw, seemingly willing herself to be brave. Slowly, methodically, he watched her extricate her arm from the brutal torture device they'd been playing with all afternoon. Finally, after what felt like the longest minute ever created, she was free.

Trembling, she pulled her injured hand out and looked down on it in horror. The Doctor's stomach twisted as he caught sight of the damage. She'd lost the ends of her index and middle fingers about three quarter of the way down the nail bed on her right hand. "Oh my God," she whispered, her face draining of the little remaining colour it had in it. "My fingers…" she breathed.

"Rene," he said with some force, causing her to look up blankly at the glass before her, "we have to keep going," he insisted, feeling completely sick that he even had to suggest this. "We have to open the door that… the one that closed again, and then deal with the one with the beam in front of it," he said as evenly as he could. That he was asking her to continue was purely loathsome, but it was necessary. They were going to die otherwise. _She_ was going to die otherwise. "I know… I know you're hurt, but you need to try again. Can you do that, Rene?" he asked seriously.

Something in his voice must've helped her focus, because her face once again showed her determination and she nodded. "Yeah. I can," she rasped. "I can do this."

"That's my girl," he nodded, his heart aching for her. There was no doubt in his mind that this woman was the real superhero here.

They continued their work, somehow managing to get the razor edged door opened once again despite Rene's injury. The Doctor had suggested she use her left hand, but she refused, saying she wouldn't be able to be as accurate with it. She'd therefore pressed ahead with her bloodied digits and with each small pained movement she completed the Doctor nearly cried with relief. Now though, once again faced with the same barrier Rene had stumbled on before, the Doctor felt his heartsbeats speed up exponentially. He watched breathlessly as she shakily, but accurately, positioned the tool in her hand to press the button on the door. When it slid across to reveal the second last chamber, he nearly fell over with happiness. A little laugh of relief escaped him.

"This is it, Rene. One last door," he advised her. He was about to share his thoughts on how to open it when something caught his eye. "Dear Gods… is that… oooohhhhhh… _very clever_!" he breathed, examining the last barrier. "Rene… remember how I said there was one last door? Well… I was right, but it's not the one ahead of your hand. Not the one obvious one. It's the one directly above your hand," he shared.

"What? But that one… I'd have to bend my arm… I don't bend that way, Doctor," she replied, her voice betraying her anxiety. "Even if that's the door to get to the red thingamabob… I'd have to be able to grow a tentacle at the end of my arm to be able to reach it!" she argued, her face glistening with sweat. Her pallor was definitely even more pale now, the Doctor noticed, making his worry for her ramp up another notch. She was clearly fighting the pain in her hand, but it was taking it's toll.

Making himself focus, he answered, "No… that's not how it works," he assured her. Around them, the loudspeaker shouted again, but this time, luckily, Rose wasn't just about to execute a very dangerous move. '_**Congratulations to Torin the Argolin! He has successfully negotiated his mate through the 'Candidate Conundrum'!'**_

"We have to hurry," the Doctor warned, becoming increasingly aware of the time passing. "I need you to tap any corner of the door above your hand with the tool you're holding, Rene," he directed.

Rene hesitated, her brow furrowing in concern. She was wary of making another mistake. Of course she was. Why wouldn't she be worried? It was her bloody arm threaded through this torture device, after all. Still… he needed her to do this. He was 99.97% sure this was the correct move. It was their best chance at surviving this trial. "Rene… please," he said, dropping his voice. "Please. Trust me. I need to win this trial. _We_ need to win it. It's the only way I can keep you alive. And that's all that matters to me, Rene. Please trust me. I can't do this without you," he entreated.

Swallowing hard, Rene whispered, "Okay. But… well, I love you. Don't forget," she reminded him with a shaky voice, clearly concerned she might not make it past this last barrier in one piece.

"I know. I love you too," the Doctor assured her. "Now go on. We have a trial to pass," he said gently.

She nodded, and then placed the tool at the corner of the door above her hand. Closing her eyes tightly, she tapped it. Nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she tried one more time. Still nothing.

Even though he knew she couldn't actually see him, Rene's eyes seemed to bore into his from her side of the glass. What should she do?

The Doctor took a deep breath. This was it. He knew it. "Third time's a charm," he shared, keeping his voice calm and light. Rene seemed to understand. Give it one more knock.

So that's what she did.

The effect was immediate. The door Rene had been tapping popped open and at the same time, the door in front of her hand… the one shielding the target… emitted an audible 'click'.

Rene's breath caught. "Did it… did the door just unlock?" she asked, still unsure it it'd worked.

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor confirmed happily, unable to keep a grin from spread on his face on seeing the result of her work.

"It worked?" she breathed. "Oh my God, Doctor… it worked!" she smiled widely.

"Oh, Yes!" he said again now smiling widely. "We're not done yet, though. We have to get it out of there," he reminded her.

Rene started to open the door that had popped open, but just as she did so, the Doctor noticed a barely visible patch of rough hooked material housed on the floor of the room her hand was in. "STOP!" he barked, making Rene freeze.

"What!?" Rene shot back, clearly frightened by his warning.

"There's a trigger under the path of the door, Rene. If you open it, it'll set something off… and we don't want to find out what, yeah?" he suggested. "Damn it!" he intoned through gritted teeth studying the spiky patch on the floor of the tiny room. "It looks like some sort of hooked material. There's probably similar hooked material fastened under bottom of the door and as it passes over it'll catch, setting off the trigger," he shared, his eyes pasted to the offending section of material.

After a moment of tense silence, Rene offered, "It's alright, Doctor… I think have an idea," she said, starting to slowly remove her hand from the structure.

"What?" he asked, watching her tug a sheet of paper up from under the tools on the tray beside the structure. The tray liner. Ohhhhh. A beaming smile spread across his face again. "Rene… that's brilliant! Truly brilliant!" he exclaimed.

Rene grinned blindly at the wall of glass before her. Tearing a bit of paper off with her left hand, she took it in the still bleeding fingers of her right hand and began sliding her arm through the threatening structure once again. Finally back at the final door, she slid the now stained paper along the floor of the miniature room until it covered the hooked section on the floor of the room.

Both of them paused for a moment. This was it. If this didn't work, they'd know in moments. Looking up at the glass once again, Rene gave him a worried smile which he returned despite the fact she couldn't see him. "I'm here, Rene. I'm not leaving," he advised her.

"I know," she replied softly before looking back into the structure and pulling the door open very slowly.

They both heard the rasp of the hooked material fastened under the door slide smoothly over the paper blocking it from connecting with the material on the floor of the tiny room. Every microsecond that passed felt like years, but finally… finally… the door was open.

"Doctor?" Rene said, looking intently past her hand at the red spikey item in the last room. She was making sure it was safe.

"Go ahead… you can pick it up. Looks safe from here," he said, desperately hoping he was right.

Just then, the exact thing the Doctor had been worried about came to be. Over the speakers around them, a loud voice announced, '_**Congratulations to Shandra the Human! She has successfully negotiated her mate through the 'Candidate Conundrum'!'**_

Rene seemed oblivious to the news. Tentatively, she reached into the final room. No alarms went off and nothing slid down or swung in. Wrapping her good fingers and thumb around the odd item, Rene grasped it in her hand. Carefully, she pulled it out of it's cage and threaded her arm back out of the horrid contraption before her.

Finally... her arm was out. The Doctor watched Rene sag down to her knees beside the table, looking at this innocuous little gadget that had taken so much from her. Tears filled his eyes. She'd done it. She'd collected their useless trinket. They were last, though. The last ones to finish. His hearts ached. Last. The Rulazians had said time would be a factor in deciding success and if that was the case...

'_**Congratulations to the Doctor the Time Lord! He is our last Candidate to successfully negotiate his mate through the 'Candidate Conundrum'!'**_ the loudspeaker declared.


	18. Chapter 18

Alright… it somehow seems wrong to be posting such a horrifically violent story this close to Christmas. I therefore briefly considered putting off posting more of this story until after the festive season, but quickly discarded that ridiculous idea! So since I apparently have no qualms about celebrating torture at this time of year… here's the next chapter!

There is no sentence prompt for this chapter, mostly because I edited it into the next chapter without realizing it! Oh well. You just need to know that a very clever prompt was used at one point in this chapter and it migrated to the next. :) Anyhow… onward and upward...

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><p>Knock Three Times - Chapter 18: The Ruling<p>

**'****_Congratulations to the Doctor the Time Lord! He is our last Candidate to successfully negotiate his mate through the 'Candidate Conundrum'!'_** the loudspeaker declared.

"Rene!" the Doctor called, watching Rene study the bloody stumps that used to be the ends of her fingers. Her pallor was alarmingly pale and her eyes were glazed over.

She slowly looked up dazedly at what he assumed was the solid glass before her. What he saw in her eyes, though, alerted him to the fact something had changed. She could see him. "Doctor?" she said, now looking directly at him.

He moved immediately to sit on the floor by the glass closest to where she sat. "I'm here… it's me," he assured her. She moved quickly to sit directly across from him.

"We did it," she told him, smiling but dazed.

"Yeah," he agreed softly, hoping he looked positive but quite sure he didn't.

An audible click sounded behind Rene in her room and she quickly turned. Behind her a Rulazian was entering carrying a small box. "Bruos," he heard Rene say.

The towering male nodded with a gentle smile. "Congratulations on completing the 'Candidate Conundrum', Miss," he said with an unmistakable tone of reverence.

"You need to help her," the Doctor insisted from his side of the glass. "She's at risk of going into shock," he added, putting as much authority as he could behind his statement.

Looking up, the male smiled. "We realize that, Candidate. That is why I am here," he assured him. Then, moving toward Rene, he knelt down beside her and extended his hand in invitation for Rene to show him hers.

Understandably, Rene looked trepidatious, and glanced at the Doctor through the glass for reassurance. As far as the Doctor could see, this male seemed genuine enough, though at this point he wasn't ready to put trust in any of these beings. Still, they didn't have much choice, and he needed Rene's injuries tended to soon. Meeting Rene's gaze, he nodded his agreement that she should let this man have a look.

Turning back to the Rulazian before her, Rene slowly extended her hand. The man nodded his appreciation for her trust and took to examining what was left of her two fingers. Reaching down into the box he'd brought with him, he extracted bandages and two bottles of liquid. "I'm afraid this is going to be painful at first," he warned her, his face the very picture of remorse. The Doctor's anxiety ramped up again. "What are you planning to do?" he demanded, glaring at the male in the other room.

The Rulazian looked up at him, his expression one of slight surprise. He was apparently not used to being questioned this way by his charges. "I have to sterilize the wound to ensure there is no bacteria," he informed him. "From there, I will apply a topical anesthetic and bandage the fingers," he explained patiently.

The Doctor shook his head in disgusted wonder. How could these creatures so quickly go from torturing her one minute to worrying about her well being the next? "Why?" he asked, his voice barely masking his disdain.

"Pardon?" the massive being responded, clearly confused by the question.

"Why? Why do you care about her feeling pain all of a sudden? Why are you suddenly so concerned about her? Not that I think you shouldn't be… you _definitely_ should be. But all you people have done so far is inflict pain and induce fear. Now you're tending to her wounds? It defies logic," the Doctor insisted, anger simmering not far beneath the surface of his words.

The Rulazian shook his head and returned his attention to Rose's hand. The Doctor watched anxiously as the blue and green skinned alien poured the antibacterial agent over her open wounds. Rene hissed in a sharp breath, releasing it in a whimper. Her pain pulled at his gut, momentarily distracting him from his argument with the man before him.

That completed, Bruos looked back at the Doctor with an expression of true regret mixed with sorrow. "You are important to us, Doctor. You and your mate. If it weren't for you and the other Candidates, we would be on the brink of chaos. Our people would be still teetering on the edge of anarchy. Instead, you all have brought us hope," he said, as if this clarified everything.

"If we're so important to you… why the cruelty? Why the nonstop pain and fear? If we're so valuable, why are our very lives being erased if we don't live up to your ridiculous standards!" the Doctor demanded, his anger now overflowing.

The Rulazain shook his head in disappointment. "You don't understand. You are being _venerated_ for your sacrifices. People in the street sing your praises and your names are tantamount to prayer. You see… your suffering is clearly beyond what any of our people could tolerate. That is why your fortitude is so valuable. So needed. And when the last of you stands, the heavy price that will have been paid through the blood of those who tried and failed to achieve the title of the 'Worthy One' will be immortalized in songs and films. Your stories will be taught in schools for generations to come. None of you will have died in vain, Doctor. That I promise. The fallen Candidates will be second in our veneration only to the Worthy One. They will live on in the memory of our people forever," he shared.

Fury spilled over to fill the Doctor's vision with red. "But we didn't _ask_ for this! None of us did! We didn't _want_ to be this for you! Rene is a young human woman who is surely missed by her family! Did _they_ agree to sacrifice their daughter for you? I can tell you right now that _I_ didn't agree to this… to letting Rene take part in this. I would never knowingly put the woman I love in this position," he steamed.

The Rulazian finished bundling Rene's wounds into bandages in silence for a few moments before standing and facing the Doctor's cell. The Doctor stood up to his full height to face this massive alien head on. If the glass hadn't been there to shield him from the Doctor's wrath, there was no telling what he might've done at the that moment. All the wind was blown out of his sails, though, when the Rulazian finally spoke.

"But you did, Doctor. You and your mate agreed to this. I know you don't remember, and it is not my place to explain, so I won't. All you need to know is that you volunteered to help our people. Both you and your mate." With that, the Rulazian turned and exited the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

The Doctor and Rene watched the Rulazian leave and the full force of his words sunk in as he did. They'd _agreed_ to this. At least these people _believed_ they did, for some reason. But… that was impossible.

"Doctor… what did he mean… we agreed to this? Do you think he'd telling the truth?" Rene broached, her shocked expression pulling him from his thoughts.

"No. No… I don't believe it. We wouldn't have agreed to this. Not if we'd known. And I would never have allowed this… I… I can't imagine a universe in which I'd knowingly let you get hurt," he vowed, seeking her belief. "You have to know that," he pressed.

Her expression softened, seemingly in support, but then...

**'****_Candidates!_** the speakers blared around them, **'****_The results of the second trial are in. Please turn your attention back to the screen in your rooms,'_** the voice insisted.

The Doctor's hearts each tightened in anxiety and he caught the look of fear fly over Rene's features. This was it.

**'****_As before, the nation already knows the nature of the second trial and what the criterion for success was. Our Candidates, however, once again do not. As you know, the individual we seek must be resilient and altruistic,'_** a video showing the Silurian stoically sitting in a frosty glass enclosure played on the screen for a moment, **'****_... intelligent and brave,' _**a moving clip of the Doctor's own face appeared waking up in the infirmary and removing the mask strapped to his face, **'****_... and committed, confident and honest.' _**The human woman, Shandra, appeared on the screen then, professing her love for her mate.

**'****_Today's trial focused on the equally important traits of problem solving and communication. In order to succeed in this trial, our Candidates had to demonstrate superior logic and reasoning to find a way to retrieve the target without their mate getting hurt and then use clear effective communication to help their mate achieve the task. This was no mean feat.'_** the announcer's voice confirmed.

On the screen flashed a video of the Argolin female squeezing her eyes tightly shut and whimpering as electricity pulsed through her… her hand clearly coming into contact with a surface that it shouldn't have.

**'****_There are those who excelled in both targeted traits,'_** the voice said, showing a clip of the Silurian woman issuing clear concise directions about specific movements her mate needed to make around a particularly tricky bit of the maze. **'****_And there are those who did not exhibit sufficient strength in one or the other of the traits,'_** the voice intoned ominously, showing a clip of the human, Shandra, watching helplessly as her mate cried out in agony, assumedly due to an error on her part.

**'****_Once again, some of our Candidates demonstrated important traits above and beyond what we had been looking for in this trial. There were the traits of positivity and the ability to inspire,'_** the voice congratulated. On the screen, a video of the Silurian began playing. She was watching her mate, who was clearly beginning to lose hope, his scaley arm deeply embedded in the structure before him and his large hand trying, without luck, to manipulate the small tool he held to open the door in front of him. "Salnoss… do not lose faith. You have the ability to master this. We will not fail. Do you understand?" she encouraged. Her mate nodded his agreement, seeming to rally himself with her positive words.

Another clip played immediately following, but this one held the Doctor's face. "Please. Trust me," he heard himself say. "I need to win this trial. _We_need to win it. It's the only way I can keep you alive. And that's all that matters to me, Rene. Please trust me. I can't do this without you," he entreated.

**'****_And much to the pleasure of the council, one impressive Candidate showed the very desired trait of the ability to take charge when it is required to achieve a common goal,'_** the voice said reverently. On the screen the Doctor saw Rene's arm shoved elbow deep in the torture chamber before her. The camera cut to a close up of her hand and the film rolled showing the horrific moment that resulted in the severing of the end of two of her fingers. The Doctor's breath stopped as he watched the dismemberment happening before his eyes once again. Darting a look at Rene, he saw her face pale. She, of course, hadn't seen it the first time. She'd felt it, but not seen it. From the screen he heard his voice cry, "DON'T PULL YOUR ARM OUT!"

Turning back to look at the monitor, he saw himself jumping up to press against the glass barrier. He watched again in helpless angst as the Rene on the screen reacted to the assault and the electricity that pulsed through her.

**"****RENE! STAY! STILL! DON'T MOVE!"** he heard himself command. The camera focused on Rene's reaction, which was immediate. His voice had permeated her pain addled brain making her cease all movement.

The clip dissolved then to show live shots of Chahst and the Doctor. **'****_Finally, the trait of efficiency was considered in the decision of deciding who should continue to be considered for the title of 'The Worthy One'. The first Candidate to finish the trial was the Silurian, Chahst. The Candidate who finished the trial last was the Time Lord, the Doctor,'_** the voice added significantly.

The Doctor's hearts froze. The timing of the last trial would count against them.

Their images faded from the screen then to be replaced by live images of him and the three other Candidates as they regarded the screens before them. **'****_People of Rulazon… you can see why the choices we make are so difficult. Each of our remaining Candidates demonstrated one or more of the traits we were looking for. For that reason, we are humbled by the weight of the decision we were charged to make,'_** the voice shared.

**'****_And now… the ruling,'_** the narrator's voice announced. The Doctor felt his breath stop in his chest as the music in the background swelled in anticipation of the news. **'****_While we had planned on eliminating only one Candidate this round, the Council felt that two of the Candidates did not demonstrate sufficient strength in the desired traits to allow them to continue. For that reason, only two Candidates will move on to the final trial. This first Candidate who will continue working toward attaining the title of 'Worthy One' is….'_** Music swelled and close-ups of each of the Candidates took turns scrolling across the screen before the image settled back on all four Candidates. **'****_... the Silurian, Chahst!'_**

Triumphant celebratory music played under Chahst's live image as it filled the screen shared with that of her mate. Both looked relieved and a small smile played on Chahst's reptilian lips.

The Doctor shot a look in Rene's direction. Her beautiful face was etched with worry. The music once again turned ominous and suspense filled. **'****_That leaves one more Candidate who will go forward to the final trial.'_** Pictures of the three remaining Candidates flashed on the screen.

**'****_The other Candidate who will continue working toward the title of 'The Worthy One' is...'_**

Turning to look at the woman he'd come to care for more than himself, he caught the look of true fear in Rene's features as a hard lump of terrified anticipation formed in his throat making it impossible to breathe.

**'****_... the Time Lord, the Doctor!'_**


	19. Chapter 19

Okay. I planned on posting earlier this week, but it's the crazy Christmas season and blah, blah, blah... you know how it goes. At any rate, here it is in all it's glory, so to speak! Thanks for your patience!

Chapter sentence prompts:

from putthepromptsonpaper - "This isn't a victory"  
>from : Another's Muse: Tumblr - "You were never safe with me."<p>

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 19: Hollow Victory<strong>

**_'_****_The one who will continue working toward the title of 'The Worthy One' is... the Time Lord, the Doctor!'_**

Rene's eyes squeezed closed and her hands clasped tightly in front of her mouth with the announcement. They were safe. Her Doctor was safe. But that meant… that meant two other couples weren't.

Celebratory music swelled as her own face and that of the Doctor filled the screen before her.

_**'**__**Once again, this means the end of the journey for two of our Candidates.'**_ The faces of the Argolin couple and the Human couple filtered onto the monitor. Their expressions ranged from horrified to resigned.

As before, each were given a chance to say good-bye to their mates. The Human woman took the opportunity to rail against their oppressors but was cut short with a bright explosion in her cell. The Argolin man, Torin, used his moment to say a tearful good-bye to his mate, offering her his heartfelt love and devotion before he too vanished in a bright flash of light.

Once again, their captors explained why the mates were being sacrificed as well over the loudspeaker, and their bravery and devotion to their mates were commended before they, too, were done away with.

Rene's deep sadness for the loss of their fellow captives ate at her as it all played out to the apparent reverence of their torturers. They seemed to have no sense of responsibility in the demise of these lives. It was like… it _had_ to happen, and while it was unfortunate, nothing else could possibly have been done. The very idea sickened Rene to the core. That these people took no responsibility for their actions simply because it was what was _supposed to be_.

The voice on the loudspeaker blathered on, but Rene stopped listening. Whatever it had to say, it wasn't anything she wanted to hear. There were four people dead now who would never hear anything again. Who was she to have been spared?

"Rene?" she heard the Doctor's voice filter through her grief. Looking up, she found the Doctor still visible through the glass. His face betrayed his pain for the lost souls as well.

"Doctor… four people! They killed four more people!" she stated, somehow hoping if she said it out loud he might refute it. Tell her it was all her imagination. He didn't.

"I know," he intoned, his own voice laden with sadness.

"This isn't a victory," she said, matter-of-factly. "DO YOU HEAR ME?!" she shouted, looking up all around her cell, addressing their captors, "THIS ISN'T A VICTORY! THERE ARE NO WINNERS HERE! JUST… JUST VICTIMS!" she shouted.

"Rene…" the Doctor warned.

"No! Why do they get to do this?! They could've spared them! They could've let them live! Instead they… they just _killed_ them!" she continued in frustration. It was all too much!

"Rene… take a deep breath. Please," the Doctor entreated. "I know it's wrong. There's absolutely nothing right about any of this, and I swear with my life… we will make it right if we get any chance to do so. But right now, I need you to calm down. Getting yourself shocked or worse isn't going to help anyone, yeah?" he reasoned.

She felt herself deflate. He was right. All that she'd accomplish by shouting was to get herself electrocuted once again. "Yeah. I suppose you're right," she reticently agreed. "I just… those poor people…" she trailed off. The images of those four victims flitted before her eyes once again.

"I know," the Doctor commiserated, running his hands through his already mussed hair. He understood. He felt the same way, she knew.

She paced for a while in frustrated silence before the Doctor sighed and sat beside the glass. Putting his hand up to press against it, he gave her a look of invitation. A small smile found her lips against her will and she slumped down beside him on her side of the glass, pressing her own smaller hand against the press of his. "This sucks," she said needlessly.

The Doctor chuckled. "Well said," he agreed.

Just then the slots in both their doors opened and a tray was inserted sporting the usual fare. "Feeding time. Blimey… if I see one more bloody brown ball of nutrients when this is over I'm gonna go spare," the Doctor grumbled. He was trying to distract her, and she was thankful despite not being able to let herself be distracted.

Retrieving their food, they both settled in front of the glass. It was like old times, Rene mused as they sat side by side. It seemed their cruel overlords were going to allow them some time together before what might be their last day alive.

They both picked at their food for a while before Rene mustered up the courage to ask what they'd both surely been wondering. "What happens tomorrow, do you think?" Her own mind had already conjured countless terrible scenarios, but she honestly couldn't settle on one as being more likely than the others.

The Doctor sighed. "I wish I knew, Rene. These people seem intent on finishing this. 'There can only be one,' they said. I imagine that means this last trial is going to be a doozy," he admitted, clearly unhappy with sharing his thoughts on the issue.

"Yeah," she replied, her thoughts already on what sort of 'doozy' that might end up being. "But… what happens after, do you reckon? I mean… for the winner, that is?" she pondered aloud.

"Oh. Well… from what I gather, there was some sort of… Trinity, they referred to, that used to rule this civilization. It apparently was somehow overthrown and its people are now looking for help to put things right. From what I understand, they seem to think one of us will be able to somehow reunite the people, or maybe help the reshape the government or some such nonsense," he explained. "Whatever role we might play in that hasn't been outlined. At least to us," he shared.

"Wow," Rene replied, letting what he said sink in. These people really believed this 'Worthy One' was somehow going to save them or something. But how? What could _they_ possibly do to help, for heaven's sake? They were aliens to this planet. It wasn't like they had an intimate knowledge of their government and history. How were they supposed to help them unite, or whatever?

"Yeah. Well… whatever happens, this will end with your freedom, Rene. I promise you that," he vowed.

He may have thought the specific wording of his promise would go over her head, but she grabbed on to the underlying message like a flash. "What do you mean… _my_ freedom? What about you?"

He sighed heavily this time, looking down at his plate while pushing one of the dry brown balls around on it. "I mean what I said, Rene. If we win this… if we pass their final test… I will only help them if they release you. If you're returned to your home planet," he said, his eyes still downcast.

Rene's jaw dropped. "Wha- Are you _that_ daft that you think I'd leave you?!" she said, her voice rising.

Looking up finally from his plate, his eyes met hers in solemn seriousness. "You wouldn't have a choice," he assured her.

Rene felt her whole body tense. "Doctor… are you seriously _threatening me_?" she said incredulously.

"Rene… I don't know how we got here, but there's a 89% probability that it was me that got us in this position to begin with. And I don't know what on Gallifrey I did to deserve having you as a mate, but I _do_ know that it was incredibly selfish of me to pull you into a situation like this. And if we win... if we're not sacrificed tomorrow… I know there's only one way I'll ever feel worthy of you. And that's if I let you go. If you stay with me… you won't be safe. Not here. And something tells me you were never safe with me. Not if your being here is because of something I did."

Anger clouded her vision making her wish the glass was gone for a far less loving reason than she'd wished before. She could just _throttle_ this man! "How _dare_you decide what's best for me!" she growled. "I _know_ what's best for me. Being with _you_ is what's best for me. No matter where that is or what's happening. Do you hear me?!" she demanded.

She was about to continue her tirade when the glass between them began to cloud over. Damn it! "Doctor… the glass is starting to get darker," she informed him, her insides still knotted with frustration over his ridiculous reasoning. "We're not done this conversation, though. Do you hear me?" she warned him, her eyes focusing hard on the slowly fading image of him on the other side of the darkening wall.

He didn't reply. Instead, his expression fell from hard seriousness to soft sadness. "Do you hear me!" she demanded, as the glass went completely black. "Damn it!" she cursed, once again alone in the room. "Bloody stupid Time Lord," she muttered, her frustration with him still roiling through her. She wondered angrily if he'd always been such a git or if this was something new.

The lights in the room dimmed above her and she cursed once again. She was desperate to continue this conversation. How could they leave things like this? The idea made her stomach hurt. She had to make sure he understood that his idea of making her leave him was not ever gonna be an option. Not unless it was because they were removing her cold, dead body. That was the only way she'd ever leave him.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The next morning the Doctor was woken with the usual bright glare of the annoying overhead lights filtering through his eyelids.

Last night he'd fallen asleep beside the wall of glass next to Rene's prone form. He'd watched her fight the effects of the soporific for a while before her body finally couldn't fight any longer and she fell into a fitful sleep. He knew she was livid with him… with his promise. It didn't change anything, though. If they survived this last trial, he knew what had to happen. He would never be able to live with himself if she stayed here with him after all this. The only way he could ensure her safety would be to make sure she was no longer under the control of these people, far away from here.

Turning, he looked through the glass to find her still sleeping on the other side, her hands tucked under her head as a buffer between it and the cold hard floor. His gut twisted. The idea of going on without this brilliant woman made his insides ache.

Flopping onto his back, he stared up at the ceiling with it's bright lights glaring down on him. He wondered for a moment what sort of life he and Rene normally lived. What had they been doing on that market moon so that they ended up 'volunteering' for this? There were a few options. Perhaps they lived there? Did they maybe run some sort of shop? A happy buzz filled him with that thought. For some reason his mind seemed to like that idea. If that was the case, maybe his real life wasn't so hazardous after all. Maybe he wasn't as dangerous to Rene's well being as he feared.

It didn't matter, though, his practical mind reminded him. Whether his 'real life' was dangerous or not, a revised life on Rulazon would be decidedly so. Rene would be at risk. There was no question in his mind. And he couldn't live with that.

None of that mattered, though, if they didn't survive this next trial. He let out a deep breath. The content of the upcoming trial was a complete unknown. It could be any bloody thing in the universe. It was likely going to embody some trait they deemed important… Gods knew what that might be.

He thought about that for a moment. So far it had focused on basic goodness, ingenuity and intelligence. Would this next trial focus on some sort of culmination of these or would it look at some new all important trait?

He was cut short in his musing with the door to the room opening and two Rulazians gliding in. These two… a man and a woman… were formally attired, their elaborately embroidered robes sweeping around their feet. Behind them two guards stood by the door.

"Candidate! Congratulations on your achievement!" the woman smiled a bit timidly, adding a deep bow at the end of her statement. The male imitated her movement, punctuating it by adding, "The Eternals clearly are with you!"

The Doctor quickly stood, his hands balling into fists at his sides. Yes… these _Eternals_ were certainly helpful, weren't they. Could've maybe saved Rene a good deal of pain, though, if they'd wanted to. Perhaps they were simply too busy killing the other Candidates to bother with Rene's pain. He kept these thoughts to himself though. No sense in calling their attention back to Rene. Better to keep this about him. "What do you want," he asked, his voice level.

"I am Wedra and this is Marr. We have been trusted with the task of escorting you through the interviews and preparation for the final trial. We'd be honoured if you'd escort us to the ready room. There is much to be done," the female Rulazian informed him, her eyes practically alight with excitement.

Darting a sideways glance at Rene through the glass, he couldn't help but hesitate. Leaving this room meant that Rene was out of his sight. Not that his eyes on her saved her from suffering, mind, but at least he felt some measure of control if he at least could be with her.

The Rulazian woman seemed to read his mind and offered him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, esteemed Candidate. We will not keep you from your mate's side for long."

Allowing himself a full look at Rene's form still curled on the ground beside the see-through wall, he hazarded, "You'll pardon me if I'm reticent to believe you. And what's to say you don't kill her when I'm gone?" he said, turning to glare at the pair before him.

The female… Wedra... looked downright surprised at his question but the male offered a gracious smile. "There would be no benefit to anyone should her life be given for no reason," she said, as if every other murder they'd committed was done with the best of intentions.

Leaving Rene was a bad idea. There was no question in his mind. He'd been kept from seeing her for far too long before now and who was to say this wouldn't be the last time he'd ever lay eyes on her if he wasn't there to keep an eye on them. "I want her to come with me," he stated firmly, standing as tall as he could, doing his best to look formidable.

The two before him definitely looked taken aback. "That… that's not possible," the male said. What was his name again? Oh yes… Marr.

"Why not? Look… Marr… Wedra...I'll come with you and do everything you ask, but I want Rene with me. That's the only way I can be sure she's alright," he said evenly.

The pair looked at each other for a moment. "It's… it's not allowed, I'm afraid, Doctor. As I said, your mate will not be harmed in your absence," Marr confirmed, as if this would surely dissipate any lingering fears he had on the subject. "Now. Your presence is required in the ready room, so if you would be so kind…" he added, inviting the Doctor to leave the room.

"Kind?" the Doctor said incredulously. "If _I_ should be so kind?! Right now I can honestly say I'm not feeling particularly _kind_," he practically squeaked, his voice rising to quite a pitch. "I'm sure you wouldn't be either if I made you watch your mate's fingers being cut off. Now I'd appreciate if you'd wake Rene and bring her along. You'll have my full cooperation if that happens. Cross my hearts," he swore, gesturing X's over both.

The expression on the female Rulazian's face was priceless. He was sure he'd have laughed if the situation had been different. She looked like she'd just found out her teen idol was really a child molester. This was clearly not a situation she'd been prepared for. Apparently the powers that be hadn't warned her that the Candidate she was to escort might not be appreciative of all they'd done for him.

The larger male stepped in then, putting a massive hand on Wedra's shoulder, as if reassuring her that he had it all under control. "Dear Doctor… you will accompany us and follow our guidelines of decorum. Please do not make us insist," the man said assuredly, shooting a very targeted glance at the woman currently sleeping in the cell behind him.

There was no chance for misunderstanding in that statement. The message was crystal clear. Aware that this particular battle was lost, the Doctor backed down immediately, putting his hands in the air as if being threatened with a weapon.

"I thought you might see it our way," the man smiled. "Now if you'll accompany us," the Rulazian said, gesturing cordially to the open door.

Knowing there was nothing for it, the Doctor allowed himself to be escorted from the room. On his way out he spared one last glance at the woman he loved and said a prayer to every deity he could think of that this all ended in her freedom.


	20. Chapter 20

It was suggested that, if I had any Christmas spirit, I would post again soon. Since I feel I embody the spirit of the season, here it is! The next chapter!

This chapter took FAR too long to write, and it was much more difficult than I anticipated it would be. That said, I'm at peace with it now. Must be the festivity of the season. Enjoy!

Chapter sentence prompts:

putthepromptsonpaper  
>"Maybe there's a nice, logical explanation. Or maybe I'm magic"<p>

"Let's just pretend you can actually understand anything I'm talking about"

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 20: Fame<strong>

The Doctor was led to another room where he was given a set of clean scrubs, a towel, and a bar of soap, and then was asked politely to 'cleanse himself'. They at least left him alone for that bit, allowing him a bit of privacy before coming back in to check on his progress. He was tempted to offer them an up close view of his clean arse, but thought better of it.

That completed, Wedra and Marr led him down yet another hallway with two more guards following close behind. Nearing a door that looked like every other door in this place, Marr stopped and placed his palm in the centre of the panel to the right of the door. The locking mechanism clicked and the door swung open to reveal a plain looking room. Plain except for the backdrop in the centre of the space painted in swirling blues, greens, pinks and purples. It stood very purposefully propped behind a table covered in a royal blue cloth. Placed at the table were two very comfortable looking chairs with padded seats and arm rests in the same brilliant blue.

"Candidate?" Wedra said a bit timidly, gesturing for him to sit in the chair directly in front of the backdrop.

"What's all this?" he asked as he approached the chair she'd indicated.

The slight woman declined to answer and merely smiled, nodding toward the seat when he finally reached the chair. Jumping up to sit on the seat properly, he settled onto the too large chair, once again reminded how much larger these creatures were than him.

Sitting stiffly, he looked about the room to further take in his surroundings and immediately noticed the cameras mounted on tripods pointed in his general direction from various spots around the room. They'd made no effort to disguise them this time. It was very clear he was to be filmed. Dread bubbled in his stomach. His experiences being filmed here had been far from positive so far.

Marr spoke then, his deep voice adding menace to his words. "You will be taking part in a series of interviews. You will be asked many questions and we trust you will answer them truthfully. Being a man of integrity, we are positive your conduct will be exemplary. I know you are very much looking forward to returning to a happy, healthy mate, so I'm sure you'll do your best to cooperate and perform to the best of your abilities," the towering male said assuredly with a rather condescending smile.

Seething hatred swept through him in response to the man's barely veiled threats. If he wanted to see Rene again in one piece, he'd better cooperate. Against his better judgement, he nodded his understanding.

The Rulazian beamed at him like he was some unruly student he finally convinced to do his seatwork. "Excellent. Now… with that unpleasantness out of the way, we'd like to make sure you are comfortable," he informed him, smiling all the while. "Is there anything we can provide you?"

Wedra smiled a bit too eagerly in agreement and quickly added, "Yes, would you like a beverage? Something to eat?" she offered.

Were these creatures serious? He was aware his expression must look rather incredulous, but he was far past caring at this point. It was completely astounding to him that these beings could be so cruel and calculating one minute, only to turn around and offer him the equivalent of tea and biscuits the next.

When he didn't answer, the male sighed lightly. "Garon… would you please get the Candidate a flacon of Tuipa?" he instructed one of the guards by the door. "And a tray of bruilit berries as well," he coached. The guard in question nodded and obediently left the room.

"Well, I suppose there's no reason to wait," the male said, looking to the female for her opinion. She merely nodded her agreement. In response, the male moved to the door and gestured for someone to come in.

From the hallway, a rather portly male appeared carrying a bulky equipment bag and behind him a particularly slender Rulazian woman swaggered in looking for all the universe like she owned the room. Unlike the rather utilitarian kit the male sported, her outfit was beautifully embroidered on top in various hues of purple and blue and her black sequined trousers glittered in the light from above. On seeing the Doctor, though, her demeanor instantly shifted from self assuredness to awe.

"Oh my…" she said, her eyes raking over him.

"Celebrity Slex, this is the Doctor, our esteemed Candidate," Wedra beamed, introducing the Doctor like this was some sort of dinner party.

"Charmed," Slex said silkily, unabashedly studying him.

The Doctor merely gave a half hearted smile back in an effort to placate Marr the blackmailing git.

"Have a seat, Celebrity," Wedra offered, pulling out the chair across from the Doctor at the table.

"Thank-you," she replied, sitting elegantly, crossing her long legs as she did so.

"Can we offer you a beverage, Celebrity," Wedra asked, clearly a bit cowed by this woman who was apparently someone rather famous, the Doctor gathered from her title.

"Thank-you, my dear… would you be so kind as to get me a Pwet sparkler?"

"Of course," Wedra replied, rushing off to retrieve whatever it was this amazon woman had asked for.

The Doctor watched as the woman before him pulled out a mirror from the bag she'd placed beside her chair. Holding it up she studied her reflection for a moment, lightly touching up what the Doctor assumed was some sort of glittery make-up all along her jawline. Pulling the mirror back from her face a bit, she pursed her lips and stuck her jaw out slightly, angling her head so the light better caught the sparkle of the face paint. Seemingly pleased with what she saw, she finally put the mirror back in her bag and threw the Doctor a coy smile.

"Can't have the viewers distracted by badly applied make-up, can we?" she explained before looking over her shoulder for the man she'd entered the room with who was now fiddling with the camera equipment behind her. "Are we ready to go?" she called.

"Almost, Celebrity," he replied, clearly attempting to hurry.

Slex sighed and then leaned in toward the Doctor conspiratorially, half whispering, "It's so difficult to acquire proficient staff," she commented, as if he would surely be able to relate.

The Doctor had a few things he'd like to say about how difficult her life must be, but he bit his tongue. Rene didn't need to get shocked or worse because he couldn't keep his temper in check. Despite how much he resented having to make nice, he knew he really had no choice. Rene needed him to keep a level head.

"Alright… we're ready Celebrity," the man behind the cameras said loudly.

"Finally," the woman muttered under her breath in response, smoothing her top down as she sat up fully and faced the Doctor.

"3, 2, 1…" the man announced, then pointed a finger directly at Slex.

"Good evening, Citizens!" Slex said, her expression sure and her voice confident as she looked straight ahead at a camera rolling somewhere over the Doctor's shoulder. "Welcome to a very special edition of 'The People'. I'm Celebrity Slex Mortan here today with a man whose importance cannot be overstated," she said solemnly. "His determination and bravery have amazed and thrilled us and his dedication and passion have made us want to be better people in emulation of him. I'm speaking, of course, of none other than the Time Lord, the Doctor," she announced, turning dramatically to face him head on.

"Good evening, esteemed Candidate," she said, making sure to fill her voice with reverence.

Assuming he was expected to respond, the Doctor intoned, "Uh… Good evening."

Slex pasted a tremendous smile on her face then. "Well… I suppose first, congratulations are in order," she announced, shaking her head in mock amazement. "Is it hard to believe you're one of the two last contenders for the title of 'The Worthy One'?" she asked, awe filling her voice.

How could he possibly answer that? He wasn't sure there even was an appropriate response. His mate had been tortured. People had been slaughtered. Was it hard to believe he was one of the last two Candidates? Absolutely. Was it harder to believe any of this could be real? That any sentient species could treat any other living being this way? No question.

The woman across from him held her smile forcefully in place as the silence extended before her. From the corner of his eye he caught Marr taking a step toward him. Right… better provide some sort of answer, he realized. "Um, yeah," he replied, hopefully filling his obligation to answer the ludicrous question.

A more natural smile filled the woman's visage with the response. Seems like all she required was some verbalization. Good.

"I can certainly imagine," she responded, looking thoughtful. "Doctor… this has been quite a journey for you and for us all," she informed him. "Can you take us through your first thoughts when you woke in the trial room after you'd volunteered?" she suggested, her expression one of puzzled inquiry.

The Doctor tossed a look over her shoulder at Marr who stood observing the interaction with interest. There was no getting away from this.

Okay… his first thoughts? "Well…" he started, "I suppose my first thoughts were wondering why the hell my head hurt so badly, and the next thought was probably wondering where in Rassilon's name I was," he informed her, leaving it at that. No need to offer more than was strictly necessary.

Nodding thoughtfully, Slex said, "It must have been quite a shock. Waking up and not remembering who you were. I have to say, to all of us watching, it was certainly interesting watching all of you slowly discovering your true natures despite your lack of memories. What was the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself?" she asked, as if it were a question she'd been asking herself nonstop since the trials began.

The questions were certainly personal. Alright… "I guess… it was discovering how very much I dislike being held against my will," he answered, a tiny bit pleased he had an opening to make his point. This was _wrong_.

Slex's lips pressed together in a considered line. Shaking her head, she replied, "That would make complete sense, given the unusual circumstances you found yourself in," she commiserated. "Especially since you had no memory of consenting to helping us save our people. It must have been incredibly confusing for you," she said empathetically.

The Doctor wanted to smack the fake look of concern off her sparkling face.

"Since then, though, you've been through so much… what was the most difficult trial for you so far?" she asked, now clearly getting to the meat of the interview. The drama.

Fine. He might as well give it to her. If he had to talk, he was going to try to make it count. "The most difficult trial?" he repeated, as if really considering the question. "Weellll… I'd have to say it was probably watching the person I care for most in the universe get her fingers chopped off. Bit disconcerting, that. Watching her blood coat the walls of that ridiculous contraption you all constructed. I'd have to say… that was the most difficult," he finished, his face hard.

Slex's eyes popped open wide with his response and it took her a moment to collect her thoughts. She clearly hadn't anticipated such a graphic answer. "Uh… yes, I can't imagine," she replied.

The Doctor smiled inwardly. Good. Such a hollow victory, but it felt good to see her squirm.

"That last trial was certainly harrowing," she said, quickly gathering herself. "But our viewers have been most perplexed by your performance in the Cold Case. Somehow, you managed to voluntarily make yourself unconscious, only to wake up exactly when you were safe to do so. And apparently you weren't just 'acting' unconscious… we were told you were truly so. Can you share with your fans how you managed to do that?" Slex prodded.

"Well, Celebrity… Slex, is it?... Maybe there's a nice, logical explanation," the Doctor considered, "... or maybe I'm magic," he said mysteriously. He had to answer their questions but he certainly wasn't about to share any details about his biology if they weren't already known. These creatures needed no further ammunition against him.

Slex smirked, not backing down. "Certainly some of our viewers think you might be," she affirmed. "You know, I have to share, Doctor, that you have quite a following… since the day you arrived, you've accumulated some of the highest approval ratings from our citizens. Of all our Candidates, you were the only one chosen 'The Most Promising Candidate' twice! Once after trial two and again after the 4th trail… you know which one I mean," she said in mock confidentiality.

The Doctor's face flushed hotly and any glimmer of lightness he'd put on with his last answer was immediately washed away. She was referring to the arousal trial. Of course he'd known since seeing Rene on the massive screens in the auditorium that they had been watched. Having it thrown in his face, though… so flippantly referred to as if it were akin to watching a particularly good episode of Earth's 'The Big Brother House'... it was sick.

Slex carried on as if what she'd said should have no real impact. "It's probably because of that very trial you were also voted 'The Sexiest Candidate'," she shared with what he assumed was supposed to be a flirty grin. "Does that surprise you?" she asked coyly, clearly aiming for a reaction.

The Doctor's mouth gaped open slightly. Gods… not only had one of the most intense and intimate moments he'd probably ever shared with anyone been whored out for the entire population of this backward planet to see, but now he was supposed to be _flattered_?! Working to press down a truly biting response, he met Slex's eyes with a purposeful glare and muttered through gritted teeth, "I honestly have nothing to say that you'd want to air."

Slex's eyes narrowed with his reply. It wasn't the juicy gossip inducing answer she'd been hoping for obviously. Turning in her chair she shouted, "CUT!"

The Doctor felt his stomach tighten. He'd gone too far. Marr stepped forward, his stare settling quickly on the Doctor. "Is there a problem, Celebrity?" he asked, his expression one of clear annoyance.

"You said he'd be cooperative! I've got viewers to appease, for heaven's sake!" Slex blustered.

Marr's lips set into a thin line. Turning to look over his shoulder, he nodded to the guard beside the door. Apparently responding to some unspoken directive, the guard then turned and flipped on a switch. Beside the door of the room a screen lit from behind a thin layer of wall. The Doctor's breath caught. On the screen, Rene was sitting in a corner of her cell, leaning against the glass partition between her room and his.

Looking pointedly at the Doctor, Marr moved closer to the screen and then turned again to face him. Lifting his arm, he poked a button on a decorative band circling his wrist.

"NO!" the Doctor shouted, immediately realizing what Marr had done. On the screen, the entire expanse of Rene's cell flooring lit up and a scream poured from her… first in surprise and then in blinding pain.

"STOP! STOP! I'LL SAY ANYTHING!" the Doctor shouted, jumping to his feet, yelling over the howls issuing from Rene's form on the screen.

That seemed to work. Nodding his head in approval, the Rulazian tapped his wristband again and Rene's cries ceased, only to be replaced by her whimpers. Marr was saying something, but the Doctor could only hear his own blood pounding in his ears as he watched his beautiful girl curl up on herself, cupping her hands over her face. She was suffering because of him. Hot tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. These bloody creatures didn't deserve the kind of increase in ratings his tears might bring, and Rene needed him to be strong now. He needed to keep it together so he could see them through this.

"... do you understand?" Marr's voice finally permeated his own pounding heartsbeat. The Doctor finally shifted his gaze from the screen holding Rene's broken form and looked at Marr. "Because if you do, it will only get worse," the Rulazian warned.

He didn't need a recap to tell him what Marr had said. Behave. Comply. There was no choice in this. Swallowing thickly, pushing back the tears still stinging his eyes, he nodded.

Turning to Slex, Marr gave her a curteous smile. "I believe you will not have anymore difficulty, Celebrity," he shared. The Doctor felt completely trodden on. Helpless to do anything for Rene from here and completely useless to even help himself, he sat defeated in the chair once again.

"Thank-you, Marr. You're a gem," she smiled, batting her eyes at him. "Right… let's start right in, alright?" Slex said, turning and throwing the comment at her hired help.

"Okay," he shouted back. "3, 2, 1…"

It was as if nothing had happened. Slex picked up her interview again without missing a beat. "The citizens watching the broadcasts have certainly fallen in love with you and your mate, _'__Rene'_, as you've named her," she informed the Doctor with what sounded like a warm, inviting voice. "Why do you think that is?" she asked him, putting on an affectionate grin.

The rapid transition from frustrated diva to pleasant on-air personality made him ill. She seemed to embody the very essence of this society… at least as he'd experienced it so far. Thankful and doting one minute to cruel and heartless the next.

The Doctor readied himself. He was going to answer her questions. He had no choice. Letting out a deep, steadying breath, he tried to reply without his voice betraying the beaten state of his soul. "Oh… I don't know. I'm not sure about me, but they must be able to see what a wonderful, selfless person Rene is. Maybe they realize how very unfairly she's been treated and it's brought her… brought us… closer to their hearts. Someone like Rene should never have to suffer like this. No one should, really," he added.

"Mmmm," Slex responded, as if considering his message. "Rene has been a real rock for you, hasn't she," the woman ventured.

The Doctor stiffened with her foray back into the subject of his feelings for the woman he cared for most in the universe. They might need their ratings, but hadn't they'd already violated him and Rene enough? Despite the fact that he had every right to be put out by the probing question, though, that didn't change the fact that Slex was still sitting across from him, looking insistently expectant and Marr's finger was ever ready to punish Rene for his lack of cooperation. "Yes, she has," he intoned, hoping his short answer would appease.

Slex shook her head in apparent empathy. "It's amazing how close people can become in the face of adversity," she commiserated. "The sort of relationship you've cultivated with Rene… it really seems like one only seen in films. Do you think it's the real thing? Are your feelings for her genuine, do you think… or are they just a sort of… _reaction_ to your situation?" she pressed.

Frustration with the callous question bubbled through him. It was just another heartless attempt to tear his soul open for all to see. His feelings for Rene had been projected onto millions of screens across this planet already, spreading his hearts open for the judgement of faceless viewers, but apparently that wasn't enough! Apparently their eavesdropping on his and Rene's conversation didn't do enough fulfill their curiousity! The Doctor felt his jaw tighten as he further gritted his teeth. He knew he needed to answer. He knew that. But an answer right now… with his hearts hammering in frustration and outrage coursing through his veins… would be a mistake. Anything he might say at the moment would surely result in pain for Rene and possibly him as well. Doing his best to calm down before opening his mouth, he clenched his mouth shut and took measured breaths through his nose. Once again, the silence between them lengthened.

The imposing figure of Marr came a step closer then, his nostrils flaring in frustration at the Doctor's perceived non-compliance. Narrowing his eyes, Marr turned and started walking toward the door of the room.

The Doctor responded instantly, anxiety catapulting an answer from his lips. "I love her!" he barked, his eyes never leaving Marr's retreating form. The male Rulazian stopped in his tracks. "I… I love her," the Doctor repeated quietly, unable to keep defeat from colouring his voice.

Marr turned slowly and once again regarded the Doctor impassively. Slex's response, however, was impassioned and immediate. "Of _course_ you do," she gushed. It was _exactly_ what she'd wanted to hear. "How could you not? I can share with you, Doctor, that she was your mate before all this, and now it is clear why. You two are a match made in the Halls of the Eternals," she expounded.

Eyes downcast, the Doctor offered her a meager nod in response.

"As I said, you've had a substantial fan base out there in the population all through these trials… even right from the very beginning. The viewers at home have been rooting for you and many thousands have been supporting you using songs and poetry as their medium," she said significantly. "You should know that a good percentage of the population are praying for you tonight, on the eve of the last trial, and many have been speculating as to what you and your mate might be facing next," she said, her brows furrowed in an attempt to look concerned. "It must be quite a burden for you to know that the next trial will likely be the most difficult you've encountered yet. Do you have any thoughts on what the it might entail?" she asked.

The Doctor shook his head, his fight gone. "I don't know. How can I possibly know?" he said, his voice subdued and his eyes still downcast. "Nothing about what you've put us through makes any sense... how can I predict what mad torture you and your people have in mind for us next?" he intoned, shaking his head. "All I know is that all this isn't necessary," he said after a moment, finally looking up to meet her eyes with his. "All this…" he said, looking around him at the cameras and backdrop, "... this isn't for the good of your people," he elaborated. "This is what you think your citizens want for entertainment. This is so people like you sell your program," he supplied. "But your people… the population of Rulazon… they're better than this. I'm sure of it," he affirmed, some of his passionate energy returning. Then, looking straight into the camera ahead of him, he said directly to the people watching, "You _must_ see how very wrong this is. If it's true, what you've said about us volunteering to help your people… then why didn't you just let us help? Instead, your government… your council has put us through unbelievable horrors. How could that possibly honour the good intentions of the volunteer? And how, in the end, can our pain possibly _help_ anyone?!" he entreated, willing the people watching to hear his words.

Slex hummed, as if once again truly pondering what he'd said. The Doctor continued staring at the cameras, hoping… _hoping_ somehow he was connecting with _someone_ out there. Slex distracted his focus, though by saying, "It's such a shame that you're unable to share in the joyous reason you are here, Candidate. Once this is over, if you're successful… then you will understand the full meaning of your sacrifice in all this," she assured him.

The Doctor felt himself flush again with frustration but did his best to reply without biting her head off. "Okay… let's just pretend you can actually understand anything I'm talking about," he said tensely. "Your so called 'noble reason' for the cruel treatment of the people you call volunteers has to do with choosing the right person for the job, am I right? Even if that's so… there had to have been a humane way to discover if any of us held that traits you value so highly, yeah? I mean… altruism… surely some of the poor souls you've done away with… surely a few of them have given of themselves in significant ways before they even met you. Could there not have been some sort of… historical fact finding to weed out the desirable from the less desirable? All of the traits you're looking for… there had to be peaceful, honourable ways to determine if your Candidates held any of them!" he insisted, his eyes flashing.

Slex's expression morphed from one of condescension to one of defense. "I… our people have done only what's been required," she asserted. "There is no way we could be sure… no way to be completely positive the Candidates were worthy without the trials," she assured him.

The Doctor nodded, his expression sober. "Right. I'll let you really think about that. Your people… the ones you are supposedly doing this all for… you're trading their own goodness… their own _souls_ in exchange for what you call 'surety'. Do they realize that is the price? Do they realize that by even _watching_ this broadcast… that they're sacrificing their own goodness? Because there's no question that there are better ways to find the 'Worthy One', as you call him. Or her. The road your people have travelled so far to find this… saviour… has been the wrong one… but I think many of your people know that already. They _must_. There has to have been a better way. And there still is. There still _is_ a better way. Don't you see?" he entreated.

Once again, Slex's expression became one of sad condescension. "Candidate… this is the _only_ real way. Absolute correct selection of the Worthy One is paramount and cannot be compromised for the good of a few when our entire civilization depends on it. There will be a time that you will understand this," she informed him matter-of-factly. "And where you learn the true meaning and purpose of the selection… whether it's on the dias as the Worthy One or up in the Halls of the Eternals… will depend on your success in the last trial."


	21. Chapter 21

Author's Notes:

Okay, my dearest readers... this is a little Christmas update treat for those who celebrate it. May you all have a wonderful, restful and happy holiday!

Chapter sentence prompt:

"I'm just so tired. How can I stop being so… tired"

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><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 21: Preparation<strong>

The rest of the day held interview after interview, most of which played out much like the first. The Doctor answered each of their questions with the least amount of detail as possible, giving just enough substance to stave of more punishment for Rene. They'd brought him food a few times during the long day, but he'd done little but pick at it. It felt wrong to eat these truly appealing offerings when Rene was left only with unappetizing round balls of nutrient.

Finally, after many, many hours and countless interviews later, Marr and Wedra ushered the final Celebrity out of the stuffy room. They spoke softly between them with their backs turned while standing at the door, but the Doctor could easily make out what they were saying. Once again, he thanked his superior biology for small blessings.

"I'm so relieved. That concludes the interviews, Wedra," Marr sighed quietly, as if he'd been the one being probed and mentally tortured all day. "I suppose we should be escorting the Doctor to the ready room for preparation."

Preparation? That didn't sound good.

"Yes, It's… 18 yu'forty," she announced, looking at the bracelet on her arm, "...the preparation starts in twenty-three units," she advised him, her voice full of surprise.

"Oh, my... " Marr said, clearly rattled by this information, "...we'd better hurry," he said quickly.

"But what about the Ipthlomic? Didn't Bluat say it had to be administered at least twenty units before the preparation?" Wedra interrupted.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Marr said tensely, clearly flustered. "Thank-you Wedra," he said, moving hurriedly to a small table in the corner. Picking up a syringe, he held it before his face and depressed the plunger, expelling a yellow liquid from the tip of a substantial looking needle. Smiling, he turned and passed it to Wedra.

Knowing full well he was expected to simply sit there and let them inject him with whatever was in the vial, the Doctor couldn't help but pull back from the slight female as she approached. "What's that for?" he asked, eying the vicious looking syringe warily.

"Oh yes, of course," Wedra said, as if she'd simply forgotten her manners. "This is just a soporific, Doctor," she said, as if that should answer all his questions. Moving in, she leaned forward with the needle.

"But… why do I need that?" the Doctor asked in an effort to stave off the inevitable. "Isn't the drug you already pump into our cells at night enough?"

Marr was obviously beginning to get irritated by the Doctor's questions, because he moved in to loom over the Doctor as Wedra closed in. "You require a direct dose this evening because you won't be returning directly to the trial room," she explained patiently. "Now, I must administer this, so if you please," she said, lifting her eyebrows in expectation.

The Doctor knew saying much more would be pushing his luck, but he couldn't help it. This was probably going to be his last chance to maybe reach someone. And while their help was incredibly unlikely, he had to at least try. "Wedra… please. I… I'm begging you. Marr... you both have your people's best interests at heart… I can tell. But can't you see what's happening here? Whatever is planned… it's going to end in someone else's death! Two innocent beings are going to _die_here! Doesn't that tell you something? It means that your people's salvation will be founded on pain and suffering. That your brand new start your citizens are looking for will be soaked in the blood of people who only wanted to _help_ them! There has to be another way. This doesn't have to be like this," he entreated, his eyes moving to meet each of theirs in turn.

Wedra looked almost pained on hearing what he had to say. Maybe… maybe he'd gotten through to her. Could he have? Marr though… Marr's expression was actually one of tired resignation. "Doctor… your pleas have not gone unheard, I assure you. Still… the trials must go forward. There is no sense in fighting it, I'm afraid. Now... " he said, physically taking the Doctor's head between his large hands and tilting it so his neck became a clear target, "Wedra… if you would kindly medicate him before he begins talking again," he requested, the exasperation evident in his tone. Wedra nodded and quickly plunged the needle into the Doctor's neck.

The Doctor's muscles went taught with the intrusion and he clenched his jaw against the burning pain of the medication being pushed into his bloodstream. After the painful administration, Wedra withdrew and Marr released him. The world around him immediately began blurring.

"We shouldn't put off leaving any longer, Marr," Wedra warned, her voice sounding a bit distant.

"Of course," Marr replied. "Come on, Doctor," he said, gently pulling the him up by the arm.

The Doctor complied, finding that his feet were slightly wobbly beneath him. This soporific must be pretty potent to have an affect on him this quickly, he realized.

Marr led him willingly to the door with Wedra close behind and as they exited, the two guards followed. Walking with purpose, his escorts' pace picked up as they went along, making it difficult for the Doctor to keep up, especially since his steps were becoming less and less coordinated. Finally, just as he was wondering if he was even going to be able to remain upright much longer, they stopped in front of a door and Marr placed his palm over the scanner. The door before them opened and the Doctor knew immediately where he was.

The infirmary.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Rene paced her cell restlessly. It had been at least an hour and a half, or maybe two, since she'd woken and worry permeated every cell in her body. After waking, she'd plastered her face against the dark glass and peered intently, hoping to see some movement, but there was none. If he was there… if he was awake… he'd have moved around to show her he was close by. He wasn't. She was sure of it. And the knowledge that she was truly alone right now ignited every fear she'd conjured about what they might be planning for today.

The last trial. Today they'd be faced with the end. Either theirs or the Silurian's. Either way, there would be no real winner. A thousand different possibilities had raced through her mind during the night, invading her dreams and her waking thoughts. It was to be the ultimate challenge. The one that would somehow set the winner apart from the loser. But what could it possibly be? Hadn't they done every possible wrong to them already?

No. Scratch that thought. A thought like that simply _dared_ something worse to come along. And she was sure these creatures had no shortfall of nasty scenarios they probably felt completely justified in putting them through in the name of their 'Eternals'. Visions of the Doctor being held forcefully underwater as his lungs burned for air floated before her and a cold spike shot through her with the thought. Or perhaps it would be _her_ they'd make suffer so he'd have to choose between saving her life or the lives of a handful or even hundreds of other innocent people. She certainly wouldn't put it past them… not after what she'd seen them do to the other Candidates and their mates.

She continued pacing for a while more before her feet began to complain about being repeatedly slapped against the cold, hard flooring. Sighing, she decided she might as well sit. There wasn't much point in giving herself blisters, after all. And really, she could worry just as easily sitting down. Moving to the corner of the room, she parked herself on the floor and leaned against the glass. Maybe if he returned she might be able to see some movement on the other side of the wall.

What seemed like ages went by with no movement and no discernible activity from the room next door. She was about to give up and start pacing again when suddenly the floor beneath her lit up brightly. Searing pain shot up to engulf her entire body, leaving no cell untouched. A scream flew from her with the vicious assault as she felt her whole body stiffen in agony.

Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped. Slumping forward, a series of pained whimpers escaped her as she caught her breath, curling in on herself to try to encase the pain and make it more manageable. As the vestiges of the assault finally ebbed, the realization of what her pain meant crept in. They must've started the trial. For some reason the Doctor was alone in it this time, and he was already being faced with something awful. The idea of her Doctor being tortured somewhere, suffering by himself, terrified her. Images of him lying strapped to a table with various implements of torture being drilled into his brilliant body plagued her. Dropping her head heavily into her hands, she felt tears spring to her eyes. _Please be okay. Please be okay._ It became a mantra as she sat still beside the mirrored wall, waiting for her Doctor to return.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

His eyes slid halfway open, and it seemed to take an enormous amount of effort to even get them that far. There were voices around him and lights shining on him and his mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

That's when a colourful face floated into view before him. "He's waking up!" a voice said, sounding alarmed.

"What? That's impossible!" another deeper voice replied disbelievingly.

"Wh… Where am I?" he heard his own voice ask as if speaking through a plastic cup.

Before him, a swirly coloured woman appeared, and he felt a warm hand on his forehead. "It's almost done, Candidate," she consoled him. "Just rest," she advised.

"I'm just so tired. How can I stop being so… tired," he asked, hearing his own confusion colouring his words.

In the distance he heard people shouting instructions. "Give him eighty more ciamols in aerosol," someone instructed.

"Just breathe, Candidate. It will be over soon," the woman now stroking his forehead promised. Her voice sounded soothing and he wanted to believe her. A muted hiss sounded from around him somewhere and a sweet smell filled his nostrils. He didn't know _what_ would be over soon, but he didn't much care. He just needed to rest. He needed sleep. Sighing, he allowed the fatigue to overwhelm him and his eyes slid blessedly closed once again.


	22. Chapter 22

Author's Notes:

Whew! I'll warn you that this chapter is a _wee_ bit intense. At least… it was for me! Part Two will be posted in the next couple of days, so don't hate me _too_ much!

Enjoy!

Chapter sentence prompts:

"The breath died inside her lungs"

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 22: The Last Trial - Part 1<strong>

The entire rest of the day went by without a sound or a movement from the other side of the blasted glass wall. When the lights dimmed indicating it was 'nighttime', Rene had, of course, slept, though it definitely hadn't been her idea. The drugs they'd once again pumped into her cell saw to it that she got her required eight.

Now, though, with the overhead lights heralding yet another day, Rene found herself instantly alert. Bolting up, she immediately pushed her hands and face against the glass in an effort to see into the Doctor's cell.

There was movement! Oh, my God! A jolt of adrenaline shot through her with the discovery. Had he made it through the trial?! Was it over? Oh, God… was he alright over there? What if he was hurt?

Half expecting a booming voice to shriek at her from the loudspeakers, she clambered to her feet. Quickly she darted a look at the wall by the door looking for the video screen. Nothing.

Just then a grinding sound issued from the glass barrier separating her cell from the Doctor's. Oh my God… it was _moving_! Her eyes widened as the partition pulled labouriously up from the floor and began ascending into the ceiling.

Her heart nearly burst with equal parts fear and excitement. This could simply be a dramatic way of ending their lives for the viewing audience… have them see each other across the room, finally together in the same space, only to see one or the other disappear in a flash of light. A sick vision burned in her mind of the Doctor walking into her cell and then exploding before her very eyes. The more optimistic part of her though dared to think that maybe this was their captor's way of showing her that the Doctor had won the trial. Hope burst unbidden into her heart.

As the wall continued its painfully slow ascent she had to remind herself to breathe. It felt like minutes before his long legs finally came into view, pacing back and forth on the other side of the rising barrier. Oh, God… this was really happening! She was finally going to be in the same room with him. She'd finally be able to _touch him_.

Despite her very real trepidation about the reason for this union, she couldn't help but feel giddy at the thought of finally holding him. If this _was_ going to be the end of their very existence, she would do her best to at least hold him in her arms before she went. If this was the end, she going to try to make it count.

Finally the wall ascended high enough that she could see his face. That's when the breath died inside her lungs.

He looked furious. Beyond furious. He looked… frighteningly livid.

"Doctor?" she said, her breathy voice sounding as off balance as she felt.

Without saying anything, the Doctor took three large strides to stand directly in front of her, his hard gaze boring down on her accusingly.

Rene wanted to shrink back but thought better of it. Something was very wrong here. "Doctor, I…"

A mighty clapping sound rang in her ears even as she felt a tremendous blow across her face. A surprised and pained yelp escaped her as she toppled over with the force of it, contacting her hip firmly with the hard floor.

"How _dare_ you address me! How _dare_ you!" the Doctor growled angrily, his tall form lording over her.

"I… I'm sorry…" she tried, entirely unsure how to respond.

Before she could even process what was happening, his foot swiftly connected with her ribs sending her sliding across the ground with a forced exhale of the remaining air from her lungs.

"SORRY?" he boomed, his voice rising. "You're bloody SORRY?! Weeellll… I guess all is forgiven then, isn't it?" he said incredulously as she fought to regain her breath. "She's sorry, everyone!" he announced, his arms outspread and his eyes looking around the room as if addressing an audience. Then piercing her with his gaze, he spat, "Your apology means _nothing_! For it to mean anything at all you'd have to actually feel some bloody _remorse_. And you _don't_, do you?" he bit, his jaw clenched tight and pure disgust pulling at his handsome features.

He _hated her_. There was no doubt in her mind. Right now, at this moment, he felt pure hatred for her. His eyes were teeming with it. The reality of what she was facing completely hit her then. This was the last trial. What possible kind of trial it could be, she truly had no idea, but she _did_ know she had to help him somehow. There had to be some way. Of course… she had no idea what he needed help _with_. What was the point in all this?! What was he supposed… or _not_supposed to do?

She didn't have time to think much about that before she felt his fingers curl in her hair to cruelly yank her to her feet. She cried out as the force of his insistent tug made her scalp burn. "You'll come to regret what you've done. I'll see to it," he said darkly as he pulled her so he was practically whispering in her ear. "You are going to suffer like you made my people suffer," he promised.

Before she even had a moment to take meaning from his comment he took her by the arm, squeezing hard enough to bruise, and led her to a spot close to where the wall had been. Grabbing her face hard between his strong fingers, he forced her to look down at the floor. "Do you see that?!" he demanded. Rene's mind reeled. Nothing on the ground jumped out at her crying for her attention. What… "_That_ was where I was born. I was _born_ you see. Not loomed like the most of my people," he said almost wistfully, looking down at the same patch of floor she was. But… he wasn't, was he? He was looking at some… scene. His eyes were seeing something very very different than what hers were. "It used to be breathtakingly beautiful. Hard to believe, isn't it? That that pile of rubble and devastation used to be a thing of simple magnificence." The Doctor shook his head in almost wistful remembrance. "But you saw to it that it would never be that again. And you thought I didn't remember your part in it. You thought you could manipulate me just like you did all the others. Well I can tell you… you were wrong. I remember everything now. Everything… _Rose_," he said significantly, glaring down at her.

She knew her face must have fallen, and his triumphant look confirmed it. Was that her name? It sounded… "That's right. I know your _real_ name. You thought no one would ever discover it, didn't you? You thought, after all the lives you took, you could simply swan off and no one would chase you down. Well I have _news_, Rose _Tyler_," he emphasized. "I _have_ found you. And by Rassilon, you are going to pay for each and every life you mercilessly ended on that planet. Every child whose cries weren't heeded that day. Every person who begged for mercy. Do you hear me?" he demanded, forcibly turning her face to look at his.

"But… but I don't…" she began.

"What? You don't _remember_?" he mocked. "Of _course_ you don't remember. You made yourself forget, didn't you? You had your memories wiped. Even _you_couldn't live with what you did, so you had someone wipe away your pain. Just take it away from you, as if it were just an old item of clothing you no longer needed. Well, there are those of us who will _never_ forget. Never. And I promise you right now, I will make sure you remember even if I have to force the memories out of you," he threatened.

Oh God… could what he was saying actually be true? She honestly had no memories of life before this place. What if he was reliving real memories? They'd _told_them they were mates, but _had they been_? Could she really be this… bringer of death he was describing with such disdain? She couldn't imagine it. She really couldn't. Why would she be so concerned for others here in this hell hole if she'd been such a horrid person on the outside? It was something she couldn't see herself doing. Ending another being's life. Even the lives of these bastards that had been torturing them. Oh… she'd thought about it. _Really_ thought about it. But when push came to shove, she knew in her heart she'd never be able to carry out such an act. Surely she wouldn't change so much in personality just because she'd wiped her memory, as he accused.

She was about to respond when he grabbed her by the arms and thrust her to the ground with surprising force. Her head connected with the floor with an audible crack. Stars splayed before her eyes and her ears rang with the impact. The Doctor's voice played in the periphery, firing off what she assumed were curses in his native language. When her awareness gathered she realized he was now straddling her, sitting on her. Her hands were pinned to her sides, his knees digging into them to keep them from moving. The incredible pain screaming from her two injured fingers made her cry out.

"That's it. _Now_ you're beginning to understand," the Doctor said cruelly. "And that's nowhere near even the smallest pain you put my people through. So go ahead. Really _feel_ it," he said, clenching his teeth and purposely digging his knee harder into her injured hand.

Another scream tore from her with his efforts. Tears streamed from her eyes despite her attempts to stop them. This wasn't him. She knew it. Still… it _looked_ like him. It _sounded_ like him. And she'd never imagined him capable of such cruelty.

"Please… please don't do this," she heard herself plead.

An angry chuckle issued from the man above her. "I wonder how many people said that to you before you showed them exactly _no_ mercy?" he said with disgust.

"Doctor… I… I know you think I did this… this atrocity to your people. But think about it," she begged. "I'm only _human_, yeah? What could I possibly do that could wipe out an entire race of people?" she entreated.

The smouldering fire of fury behind his eyes erupted with her statement. "You are _anything_ but merely human, though. YOU, Rose Tyler, are so much more than that, aren't you? But then, apparently you don't even remember _that_ little tidbit about yourself, do you?" he spat.

Rene's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" she said, her voice sounding a whole lot smaller than she'd have liked.

"I _mean_," he said, tapping her forehead pointedly, "...that you've got more upstairs than you've been letting on. You're a bloody freak of nature. Your brain isn't just human… it's so bloody complicated that it's practically a singular space-time event encased inside your skull. So don't try to tell me you're not capable of doing something like obliterating my entire species!" he snarled.

What the hell… what was he even _talking_ about?

"I saw it, you see… before. Before I remembered who you really were." He shuddered visibly, apparently recalling… oh god… was he remembering the time he'd spent in her head… when he'd 'helped' her?

A deep empty sadness filled her for a moment. The thought of being with her… having shared a moment that she was sure she'd cherish for her entire life… it literally repulsed him. That time… their first time… he really had no good feelings for her now. None.

Continuing his tirade he added, "I don't know what sort of mutant hybrid creature you are, but your days of attempting to pass as a simple human are over," he informed her. "Now. I'm going to dig into your mind. And it's going to hurt. Funny how I'm completely fine with that," he said, pretending to think about it for a moment. "You're clearly not going to remember your past on your own. And you need to remember. Because for what I have planned… I want to see your face when I name each atrocity I punish you for. I want you to relive each sick act so you _know_ why you're being dragged through the fires of hell."

With that, he pushed his fingers hard against her temples. She was about to cry out, but before she could, his mind surged into hers.

Memories of the last time he'd entered her mind came back unbidden. It had been painless and soothing. This time, though, there was nothing gentle or kind about it. This was an attack, pure and simple. His intense anger engulfed her, seeping into every crack of her mind as he pushed forward. It was breathtaking in its ferocity. This was not the same man who'd been in her mind before.

_'No, it certainly isn't,'_ she heard in her head. He was speaking to her in her mind. _'Because now I know who you are. I know that you purposely decided to send my people to their deaths. And I know that you had a choice. You could've taken another path. But instead, you chose to obliterate an entire species!'_ he shouted in her mind.

Suddenly, from somewhere deep in her head she felt a searing pain. A scream escaped her lips and she tried to pull her hands up to cradle her head, but she was unable. _'Hurts, doesn't it?'_ the Doctor pointed out evenly. _'Now imagine that feeling, but multiply it by millions. Millions!'_ he spat in her mind. _'Here… I'll help you imagine it even more clearly,'_ he projected.

If she'd thought the jolt of pain she'd felt before had had any substance, she'd been misinformed. _This_ was pain. It felt as if razor sharp talons were tearing each and every neuron out of her skull, and with each newly exposed nerve the Doctor tore at, memories spilled painfully into her mind. He was clawing mercilessly at every wall their captors had erected in her mind with their drug, making memory after memory erupt before her even as the pain he was inflicting threatened to pull her under.

Images of the Doctor… not the one currently torturing her, but another one… this one broad and blue eyed… spread before her to meet with other memories of the Doctor, looking much like he did now. Pictures of them holding hands, running through streets and fields and cities and towns, played before her. Memories spilled into her from every direction … she and the Doctor… her first Doctor… dancing in an abandoned building of some sort. Her and _this_ Doctor picnicking on a planet that smelled like apples… hugging tightly after he saved her from a life of faceless nothingness… laughing as they shopped in a busy marketplace. The images kept piling in. Her Mom. Her job at Henrik's. Her friends.

And with each memory, she felt herself retreat further and further into her mind. Further from the drowning pain. And just as she was about to drift completely away, a slow burning fire shot up from the depths of her mind. The Doctor either didn't notice, or didn't care, because he didn't even pause in his ravaging of her tattered mind. Seething hatred poured from him and surrounded every thought he made her listen to. He hadn't stopped shouting at her inside her head since he began his attack and he didn't seem to be getting close to stopping even now as she was on the verge of leaving consciousness.

And while she was clearly at the end of her ability to maintain awareness, something inside her was objecting to his continued battery of her mind. Or perhaps… and much more likely… the rising fire burning hot in the back of her head was merely what she'd heard people describe as the 'light'. Maybe this was it. The end. And if that was the light, then by God, she was going to go to it. Anything had to be better than _this_. And maybe… just maybe… she'd find her Doctor… her _real_Doctor… on the other side someday.


	23. Chapter 23

Okay… I was summarily balled out for having written a decidedly disturbing chapter. That said, I love you all for so heatedly commenting… it means a lot! :) Hopefully this chapter will placate you all and I will no longer be threatened with pointy sticks.

Thank-you Brazen Wulf ( u/436629/Brazen-Wulf) for the sentence prompt for this chapter:

'She could hear a voice, desperately pleading with her to come back to him, but this place was bliss and all she wanted to do was surrender to it.'

* * *

><p><strong>Knock Three Times - Chapter 23: The Last Trial - Part 2 <strong>

It had been very difficult to show any restraint at all when he'd stepped into her room. He'd remembered. He'd remembered it _all_. And now she needed to _pay_. Red blurred his vision and made him want nothing more than to strangle her right then and there. He hadn't though, and for that he was proud.

Now though, as he clawed and tore at the barriers between her memories and her consciousness, he felt all restraint fall away. He needed her to _suffer_. She needed to feel some of the pain she'd inflicted on the millions of people she'd slaughtered. Nothing would ever bring them back or make right what happened, but by Gods… he intended to make sure she knew some of the agony his people had felt during the horrors of the war.

The horrors. The many and horrendous horrors he'd witnessed in the Time War. The end of his people. And it had been _her_. She was the one who'd ended it all. The one who'd decided his people weren't worth saving. The one who'd slaughtered innocent children and their families.

His hearts burned with the pain of it. All those people. Dead. Gone. And now he remembered why. And she would pay. He would kill her. But first, he'd teach her how it must've felt for those children. He'd make her suffer just as horrendously as his people had suffered.

Tearing apart the drug induced barriers between himself and her memories, he made sure to recount just a few of the almost endless atrocities she'd ultimately inflicted on innocent Gallifreyans in the war. He shouted them into her mind as the barriers fell, leaving her memories to spill out in tangled, broken torrents. She'd screamed through much of it, but now she was merely whimpering. He didn't slow or falter in his purpose, though. He was going to see this through to the end. She would remember _everything_ she did. Oh… it might take days, maybe even _weeks_, before the ripped and tattered neurons actually healed enough to for her to access them again, but when they did… that's when he'd end her, just as she'd ended the lives of countless innocents.

Sifting through memory after memory as they tumbled into her consciousness, he'd yet to find what he was looking for. Her memories of the war. Oh, he'd come across memories of Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, and Sicorax, but none specific to the Time War. He looked through and discarded many obviously planted memories of the two of them together… some of them terrifying, but most of them almost blissful in their overall colour. There were a good number of those. Still… he'd yet to come across even one memory of the atrocities she was responsible for. She had to have them buried deep. _Really_ deep. Well he wasn't going to rest until he found them.

As he continued his relentless plundering of her mind, he suddenly became aware of an unusual warmth issuing from just beyond where he was digging. It was emanating from somewhere in the depths of all those insanely complicated connections he'd noticed in her mind before. At first he ignored it as an artifact of the trauma he was inflicting on her mind, but after a few moments he couldn't resist it. It was as if it was somehow calling him. He tried once again to play it off. This woman was clever and ruthless. This was no doubt some trick to call his attention away from his true purpose.

A few more moments went by before the insistent warmth became a full fledged flame and before he could even process it, he found himself fully metathesizing into a moth.

Saying he was being drawn toward the light was a glaring understatement. Floating toward it, he found he was completely helpless to go anywhere but in that very direction. His very soul was being pulled closer and closer to the now brilliantly lit golden flame as it emanated from one pinpoint spot in the very back of her mind. It was the spot he'd been unable to see before due to the millions and millions of connections pouring forth from it to interact with her time centre and from there to curl and twine with seemingly infinite number of memories in her mind.

_'Doctor… come to me...'_

The dual toned call startled him into awareness… he needed to get out! Get out of her mind! This was a trap and he was floating right into it! Attempting to scramble away, his mind worked feverishly to backtrack, but to no avail. He was being pulled in. He was going to burn.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Heat and flame consumed her, but she felt no pain. The light she'd followed had welcomed her and she sank gratefully into it's warm embrace without looking back. If this was death, she was alright with it. It was bliss.

Settling in for a long, long stay, she felt a desperate, fearful presence intrude on her sanctuary. Instinctually she shrunk away from it. In another life a similar presence brought with it pain and that's what she'd come here to escape.

The pulsing warmth around her, though, had other ideas, and she instantly felt the fearful presence being pushed and nudged toward her just as she felt herself being insistently pressed against it. The proximity of the intruding entity felt exceedingly uncomfortable, especially with it's dark tinges of desperation. It didn't want to be here. It wanted out.

_Let it out, then!_ she thought to the encasing warmth around her. The protective light ignored her, though, and continued its encouragement of closeness with this thing.

Deciding she was obviously going to just have to put up with sharing her happy space, she begrudgingly stayed where she was and did her best to soothe it. After a good while, it finally conceded to relax a bit and that's when the warmth around them began pulsing. A sort of howl filled the bright warm space, bringing with it both protective comfort and ominous power. The entity beside her actually seemed to pull in closer to her, seemingly seeking protection and comfort.

She'd initially feared this thing when it joined her in the light. It's clawing anger had instinctively made her want to pull back. But with this small act of vulnerability, her discomfort and fear of it instantly dropped away. It was still angry. She could feel it. But now she knew… that was just the very surface. Gently poking at the angry shell surrounding this being, she tried sending it some peaceful thoughts. It shied away a bit, as if such a feeling wasn't possible for it, but after a short while she noticed her soothing thoughts having a noticeable effect. The varnish of anger was slowly being eroded by her persistent calm, and under the furious veneer she was more than surprised to find warmth. Genuine caring.

She continued her ministrations, pushing continued warm, welcome and now, affectionate feelings to it. What was left of the hard angry exterior began actually crumbling and fell away. And what was left… it was beautiful. And perfect. It was the embodiment of appreciation and affection. It loved her. It would never hurt her.

Around them the thrumming and howling took up a new energy. The light pulsed and glittered, making her nearly have to turn away. It was then that the entity beside her exploded! It burst like a firework, startling and frightening her as it shot out in every direction before slowly settling into back into itself.

When the light settled, the entity beside her still shone bright. It was… breathtaking in it's energy. It seemed to encase pure amazement that teemed with equal parts adoration and affection. For her. For this place.

Fully accepting the honest open devotion this entity had for her, she snuggled against it, recognizing it finally as a very safe one to be with. In fact, being pressed against this incredible energy was like finding herself at home. She was loved here. Completely loved.

She wasn't sure how long it was before the entity sharing this special place with her… the one she could easily define as her 'soulmate'... drifted away. She felt it leave and called for it to come back, but it didn't. She was alone in this brilliant cocoon. Part of her yearned for it to return… to be with her in this afterlife.

In the distance she could hear a voice, desperately pleading with her to come back, but this place was bliss. All she wanted to do was surrender to it. There was nothing out there for her now, she told herself. And what if her soulmate came back? No… this was where she needed to be. This was where it was safe and she was loved.

The voice kept calling though, becoming more and more insistent, making it more and more difficult to ignore it. Over and over it called, making her finally peek out of her warm shell to find out what all the fuss was about.  
>That small gander was a tremendous mistake, however. Without even a moment to adjust, she was brutally yanked from her safe haven and thrust cruelly into consciousness.<p>

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The Doctor came to slowly, the world spinning back into place after having his brain finally returned to his own control. His head pounded… pain stabbing the inside his skull, wholly consuming his awareness. For a moment he considered opening his eyes, but immediately thought better of it. It felt like anvils were hammering at the back of his retinas.

He tried to recall what had happened, but all he could remember was being injected with a needle by Marr and then walking down a maze of hallways. What had happened next? Pushing himself to recall anything after that, he concentrated on moving back into the depths of his mind and encouraging any memories to drift forward into his awareness.

It was then that ten lifetimes' worth of memories crashed into his consciousness. Self awareness bloomed in him as memory after memory fell into place, the drug no longer holding them back.

He was the Doctor… he already knew that… but now… now he knew everything. He was hundreds and hundreds of years old, he'd regenerated many many times, he'd travelled through time and space since his first body and he'd been privileged to have travelled with some of the most incredible people in the universe. Face after face floated before him… Susan, Jaime, Zoey, Liz, Sarah Jane… it seemed like there were hundreds. Each vision brought with it a boatload of feelings, most of which were positive, but many of which ended in guilt and some with unprecedented pain. The ghosts of each individual he'd ever known cycled before him… Teagan, Ace, Molly…

Rose. Where was Rose?!

His head was pounding, making it difficult to open his eyes, but he forced them open despite his body's initial protest. The lights above pierced him, making his eyes water. Blinking the brimming tears away, he turned his head to find… Oh my God, Rose!

Pushing himself onto his side, he pulled up onto hands and knees and hovered over her, his hand anxiously stroking her cheek. What had happened to her?!

It was then the cruel memory of his last encounter with her finally slid into place. A jolt of surprise and disgust bolted through him and immediately he pulled away from her. Oh Gods. No. No no no nononono… What had he _done_!

"Please, Rose… Gods, please come back to me…" the Doctor urgently pleaded, his desperation punctuating every word. Taking her small hand in his, he squeezed it possibly harder than was necessary, willing her to wake. Gods… he'd… he'd… what had he _done_?!

A small moan escaped her and her eyes fluttered slightly before finally cracking open.

"Oh, Gods! Rose!" he practically shouted, scooping her prone form into his arms and holding her tightly against him, scarcely believing she was back with him.

Her voice croaked brokenly in response… "Doctor… how… how…"

"Rassilon, Rose! I thought I'd lost you," he continued, pressing desperate kisses onto the top of her head as he held her close.

"R-rose?" she repeated groggily.

A soft joyous laugh escaped him with the relief of simply hearing her voice again. "Yes… Rose. You're my Rose Tyler… and you're brilliant!" he gushed, unable to contain his enthusiasm at having her alive in his arms.

"Doctor… what happened? In my head? I mean… I remember… light… it was beautiful," she said softly, her eyes distant. After a moment, she added, "and I remember… before that… you were back and the wall… it went up…" she said, her brows furrowing.

Then awareness dawned. Her eyes went wide and shot up to meet his in abject fear. A startled gasp left her and she pushed him away, scrambling back as if she'd been burned.

"Rose…" he started, fully understanding her rejection but unable to keep his hearts from breaking as a result of it.

"St...stay away from me," she warned, trying to back up further but finding herself pushed up against the wall. Despite her clear eagerness to put distance between them, she stopped there, moving her hands up to cradle the sides of her head. She must be substantial pain after what he'd done. The knowledge was killing him.

"Rose, please… I… I'm sorry! Gods, I'm… I'm so, so sorry," he pleaded, desperately wanting to hold her but making himself do the exact opposite. Slowly he backed away from her, trying to placate her and calm her fears.

His action had the desired effect, and Rose seemed to relax ever so slightly the further away he got. "Wh...what happened? Why were you… why did you do that?" she asked, obviously still terrified of him.

"I… I couldn't stop myself," he said honestly, trying to imagine what could possibly have made him act in such a sick, violent way.

"What do you mean," she asked, fear permeating her voice.

It was true that he hadn't been able to stop himself. He'd felt complete and utter _rage_ toward her. His mind had been telling him she was responsible for… for… Gods. For what _he'd_ done. The truth of that fact bit him squarely in the chest. He'd been punishing her as he'd felt he deserved to be punished. For _his_ sins. Tears sprang to his eyes. He'd planned to kill her. He was going to torture her and then end her life… just as he felt _he_ deserved for what he'd done. For ending the lives of the millions of people he called his own.

"Doctor?" he heard Rose say from outside his thoughts.

"It was me," he said, his body crumpling in on itself. "Rose… it was me. _I_ did those things. All those things I was accusing you of… it was _me_!" he confessed.

"I don't understand," Rose said shakily.

Chancing a look at her, he found her looking worriedly back at him. How could he have done this to her? What could possibly have made him believe this incredible creature could've been capable of the evils he had committed? "Rose… I'm not a good man," he said softly. "I… the things I've done… the pain that I've caused… it's beyond anything your beautiful mind could even comprehend," he admitted, the truth of it leaving him feeling gutted and hollow. "And for some reason… " he trailed off.

But… but _what reason_? What could possibly have manipulated him into thinking Rose had been responsible? What had pushed him to treat her so cruelly?

An idea struck him. Sending a mental probe to quickly sweep his body he suddenly found the culprit. Running a nervous hand through his hair, he stopped when he found it, wincing as his hand connected with the wound. Gods.

Looking up in alarm, he met Rose's eyes. "It's an implant, Rose. The Rulazians… they put an implant in my brain."

"What!" Rose squawked, her own eyes widening as she pushed herself away from the wall to lean in a bit closer to him.

"They used… they took my own real memories and used them against me. Against _us_. They… they must have implanted a memory filter and a neural amygalian stimulator to ramp up my reactions… to remove inhibitions. Then they made me think… I thought you'd… you'd…" he trailed off, emotion clogging his throat.

His words seemed to spark some crazy recklessness in Rose and she surged forward to wrap her arms around him. "Oh, Doctor!" she breathed, pressing her cheek against the top of his head.

He knew he shouldn't let himself take comfort from this woman… the victim of his brutal assault… but he couldn't help himself. Nestling against her, he grasped onto her for dear life.  
>He wasn't sure what it was… her soothing touch or the very fact she wasn't repelled by being close to him, but in moments he found himself sobbing. Sobbing. For Rassilon's sake… he'd almost killed her. Still… here she was. Holding him. Comforting him.<p>

The tears fell freely now, and Gods help him, he pulled all the comfort and support he could from the brilliant woman cradling him in her arms. The events of the past couple of hours played over and over in his mind as she held him, stroking his hair and back. Finally, when he could form words again, he croaked, "Gods, Rose… they wanted me to… I _believed_ them. I couldn't… In my mind it was just _fact_."

"I know," she soothed, bringing up her hand and gently stroking the side of his face. "I know."

He shook his head… she mustn't… she couldn't understand what he was saying. She didn't know. "But it was _me_, Rose. Don't you see? Those were my own deeds… it was really _me_ who was responsible for those things. Those atrocities. For the extinction of my _own people_," he said, his face tight with emotion. "And I almost… I can't believe I almost…" his voice cracked. "I could've _killed you_!" he choked. He hadn't been in control of himself when he'd torn through her mind, but that didn't change the fact that he'd done it. It was his mind that had invaded hers without her consent and ravaged it. No. _Raped it_, he corrected himself.

"Hey," Rose's silken voice permeated his dark thoughts, "that wasn't you, yeah? You wouldn't hurt me. Not on purpose," she assured him.

Frustrated, he pushed back from her and drove his hand through his hair. "I _did_ do it, though. I should've… I didn't stop myself, and look what I did to you!"

"Alright… then if you didn't stop yourself… why am I sitting here now? Still alive and able to have a conversation?!" she said, obviously trying to make him see what she saw as 'reason'. "If you hadn't stopped yourself, I'd be dead now, yeah?"

"Rose… in the end, I didn't. I _didn't_ stop myself. It… it was you, Rose. You did it. You saved yourself. You saved _me_," he informed her.

Rose looked taken aback by his statement. "What do you mean? How could _I_ have stopped you? I was unconscious for heaven's sake! I only just woke up," she argued.

He studied her for a moment before shaking his head. "It was you," he reaffirmed, fully aware that his awe for her was seeping from his every pore. "But I want you to know… I… I really didn't know, Rose. I had no idea that you might be capable of something so brilliant. Not that you're not brilliant… 'cause you are! Clearly you are. But if I'd have known about this _extra_ of brilliance sooner, I would've told you, I swear. I would've been honest. But I didn't," he swore. He knew he was babbling, but that didn't seem to stop him.

"Hold up," she said patiently. "Explain from the beginning, yeah?" she requested evenly.

"Oh. Yeah… okay, well… on Gamestation…" He paused then, studying her for a moment. "Rose… what do you remember? About yourself. About us?" he asked, realization hitting him. He'd _ravaged_ her mind. The memories he'd pulled from their hiding places behind the wall of drugs had been literally torn from their connections, left in tatters for her body to put back together. A deep self-hatred bloomed within him. _He_ had done this to her.

"Well…" she thought, looking off just past him, "I… I remember the cell… where I woke up and when I met you," she stated. Closing her eyes, her faced morphed into one of concentration. Finally she opened her eyes and shook her head lightly. "I still don't remember anything from before," she said, her eyes clouded with worry. "What does that mean?" she asked, her voice small.

"It's… they'll come back. Your memories. It's just, well… they were damaged. When I… when I broke down the walls the drugs had created… it damaged the neurons," he swallowed as regret threatened to make him once again tear up. "They'll heal, but it'll take time," he assured her.

Her face relaxed with his explanation. "Oh… okay. But… how do _you_ remember things now?" she asked him. "You said something about a… station?"

Guilt pummeled at him. He remembered. He remembered well. "Yeah… I can remember now. Who I am. Who you are. And it was you who helped me remember. Just now when I was in your head. It was your brilliant brain that saved us and helped me remember. _You_ did it, Rose."

"But… how could _I_ help you remember?" she asked, truly confused. "You're a Time Lord, yeah? I'm… well, I'm no dunce, but I'm hardly a Lord of Time. What could _I_ have done to help you?" she asked, completely perplexed. Realization found her beautiful features then. "Wait… when you were… earlier you said I wasn't a simple human anymore. What did you mean?"

What he'd really said… _You're a bloody freak of nature. Your brain isn't just human… it's so bloody complicated that it's practically a singular space-time event encased inside your skull_... echoed through his mind, once again dousing his body with remorse. As sick as he'd been in his description of her unusual nature, he hadn't been wrong. She was human, but not all human. Not anymore.

"Rose… I don't know how to tell you this. You don't remember the event yet… but you will soon. It was… Gods…" he trailed off with a little chuckle, realizing the situation hadn't been much different then than the one they were faced with now. She'd saved him. He'd been about to perish thanks to the Daleks. He'd sent her away to save her and she'd refused to stay gone. She'd returned to him and saved not only him, but undoubtedly she'd saved numerous civilizations as well. "Basically, Rose… you saved my life. You… you looked into the heart of the TARDIS… my ship… and managed to absorb its energy… vortex energy. You saw all of space and time. All that ever is and will be. But a human can't survive that. Humans aren't meant to hold vortex energy. Your mind… it would've burned. Blimey… it burned _me_ from the inside out and I'm a bloody Time Lord for Rassilon's sake! So I took it from you. I thought I'd pulled the vortex completely out of you," he explained, willing her to believe him.

"Okay..." she nodded, obviously needing more.

"Anyhow… you… you changed the universe while it was in you, Rose. And somehow… you managed to change yourself as well. You see… the vortex… a small bit of it stayed within you. You managed to allow a small part of your mind to encase the remaining time energy you knew you'd be left with, and you protected it with barriers. It was only when your very life was threatened that you'd allowed your body to access it. And… and it was when I… when I…" he trailed off, his throat once again constricting.

Rose reached up and stroked his face in support. The feel of her soft hand against his skin calmed him a small bit, helping him push ahead. "When I was close… close to killing you," he paused for a moment needing to collect himself before finishing, "... that's when you let it free. And it was you, Rose. All that time energy… it was Bad Wolf. That's what you'd named it… what you'd identified it as. When you carried the vortex in you before I pulled it out of you… you'd called it… called _yourself_ 'Bad Wolf'," he explained, hoping she understood.

Rose merely looked at him, her mouth slightly agape, possibly trying to process what he was saying. "Anyhow…" he pressed ahead, "I was helpless against it. It distracted me from ravaging your mind long enough to draw me into that beautiful light with you, and then it didn't let go. You didn't let me out until I had control. Until what they did to my mind was neutralized and I had all my real memories back. By Bad Wolf. It was you and Bad Wolf that stopped it, Rose. _You're_the one who saved us," he affirmed, his eyes alight with pride.

The Doctor watched Rose try to process what he'd said. Bad Wolf. He knew that if she had all her memories the name would've elicited fear, and yet now it had been her blessed guardian angel. Bad Wolf had been there for them when all was lost. Memories of the light… the comforting blanket of safety he'd been drawn to in her mind… filled him. It was Bad Wolf. It was _her_.

After a few moments, a soft smile found her lips and she shook her head. "Doctor… you're right that I was there. I remember it. The light… the warmth… the comfort. And this… _Bad Wolf_ might've been there too… but it wasn't me that saved us," she informed him, her smile gorgeous and genuine as her eyes searched his. "It was you. I encouraged you. I held you close. I remember that. But it was _you_ who allowed the anger to be caressed away," she assured him.

He shook his head, about to point out that, no… she was wrong. It was _her_. She was the reason she was alive right now and he wasn't a dissociated mess. She cut him off though before he could utter a sound, "No… I can see you want to argue, but _you_ overcame it, Doctor. I was merely support," she said assuredly. "I couldn't have done anything if you hadn't wanted it enough... if you hadn't been fighting inside yourself for it to happen. _You_ did this. You saved yourself. You saved us. I only helped out where I could," she informed him. "I'm just so, SO glad you were so strong, Doctor," she said gently, stroking the side of his face once again.

Guilt ripped at his insides on hearing her words. "I'm _not_, though, am I? Look what I did to you!" he lamented, squeezing his eyes shut. "Gods, Rose… I'm sorry," he whispered. "What I did to you… I'm so, so sorry.

"Doctor," Rose admonished, taking his hands in hers, obviously trying to force him to look at her.

Immediately he cast his eyes away. He didn't even deserve to look at this forgiving woman. He'd violated her in a way… it was unforgivable. "You… you shouldn't be with me, Rose. I'm… I'm dangerous. What I did…"

Rose cut his lamentation of curtly. "This wasn't. Your. Fault. Got it? The Rulazians did this. _They_ hurt me… not you!" she insisted.

He heard her but still couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes. She was completely ready to put the blame on anyone but him. Even after hearing what he'd done to his own people. Even after what he'd done to _her_, for Rassilon's sake!

An angry growl issued from the woman before him, surprising him enough to knock him from his tower of self pity. "Don't do this. Don't do this to me. To us," Rose husked, her jaw tight.

He was about to defend himself… or rather… defame himself… when she continued, "We've been through too much. Even if I don't remember it all… even if we only count what's happened _here_ in this godforsaken place… _I've_ been through too much to let you pull away from me now. Doctor… I _need you_! Don't you see that?!" she demanded.

With a frustrated grunt, she got to her feet. She swayed a bit then, and immediately pulled her hands up to her forehead as if to keep her brain from toppling out of it's bone chalice.

The Doctor was on his feet and beside her in an instant, his hands on her arms to steady her. "Rose…" his voice breathed as she began to sag against him, her eyes beginning to glaze over. Adjusting his position quickly, he caught her from sloughing to the floor and hugged her close. "Gods, Rose… I'm so sorry. You deserve so much more. You deserve a safe human life with a normal bloke who couldn't do this to you," he informed her.

She cut him off smartly with more energy than he'd thought she could muster at the moment. "NO! That's just it, don't you see?!" she demanded. "You're a good man, Doctor! A good man! I know you don't believe it. It sounds like your life… you've been through so much before any of this happened. But no matter what happened… what caused you to dislike yourself so much… what's happened here, in this putrid place… you can't discount it. You've proven that no matter what you'd rather see yourself as… you're a very good man. And I may never be able to convince you of that. I know that. But don't use your guilt to push me away, alright? What I said before… I meant it, Doctor. I need you. I love you. Plain and simple. So please… promise me you won't use this as a wedge between us?" she entreated.

The words were like a scythe slicing both his hearts in two. That was exactly what he'd intended to do. Push her away using his own actions as an excuse. Invalidate any honest feelings he'd had in all this by writing them off as his own weakness. The truth of it struck him in a way he knew he'd have never allowed it to before all this. This ordeal had broken his defenses by not allowing him to hide behind the excuses of his past. As Dekker he'd been able to face his real feelings for the woman before him because he had no preconceived 'rules' that wouldn't allow for them.

The gravity of the revelation was immense and almost paralysing in it's impact on his universe. He was going to have to confront feelings he'd considered demons for so very long now. Feelings that, right now… for the first time in his very long life… he recognized as simple truth. Not evil. Just fact. Without all the ridiculous trappings of his people's high brow rules and his own self-imposed determination to remain unhappy… he'd admitted his true feelings for this woman now wrapped in his arms. And if those feelings weren't the demons he'd always assumed they were… Gods. His mind reeled. Perhaps there was a possibility that he might be able to share more than just friendship with this frankly brilliant creature. Rose Tyler.

Rose pulled back then, all the fight apparently having left her. Looking straight up into his eyes she whispered, "Don't leave me." She sounded so small. So very worried. Pulling her in, he embraced her tightly. He could feel her warm body tense against him and knew she was waiting for a response. A confirmation.

Pulling her again in tightly to his chest, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, closing his tightly eyes as he did so. As much as fear begged him to halt the words leaving his mouth, hope bid him to continue. "I promise, Rose. I won't push you away. Not anymore," he vowed. Then, lowering his voice, he added softly… guiltily, "I know you don't remember right now… which tells me how very very intuitive you are that you just called me out on the one behaviour I've somehow managed to excuse myself for before now… running from you. You deserve so much more than that. You deserve the universe. You deserve someone so much better than me. But if you decide you'd rather… well, that you'd rather have me… then you have me. I'm not leaving you," he promised.

A relieved watery laugh escaped the woman in his arms. Pulling back a bit from him she stared up into his eyes. Her own were glistening with what he hoped were happy tears. She was biting her bottom lip, possibly in an effort to keep herself from crying, and he couldn't help his gaze from travelling to study the curve of her mouth.

A surprising zing of hope and need filled him with realization that this was something he might be able to allow himself. Truly _being_ with Rose Tyler. His mind had ventured into perilous amorous fantasies about his companion many times before now, but he'd always been so revolted by his lack of ability to make his mind comply to his stodgy rules that he'd squashed them the moment they emerged. Now, though… now… dare he even consider it? He'd already shared something very intimate with this fantastic woman. Something beyond intimate, in fact. It had been… incredible. Dare he even entertain the idea of something like that happening again with his Rose? Hopefully in person this time with fewer clothes and a big Torian feather bed?

Before he even realized it, he was leaning in. Every rational part of him yelled at him to stop. This _wasn't_ Rose Tyler. Not completely… not yet. This was Rene. And as much as he now was able to admit what she meant to him… his Rose… there was a very good chance, when this was all over and her memories returned, that she'd balk at the very idea of something like this with him. Just because he might be able to finally admit how he truly felt about her didn't mean she would feel the same way. No. Rose needed to remember. This needed to come from _her_. He needed her to really chose this.

His body seemed to have a very different idea of what needed to happen however, and when Rose eased up onto her toes with her body pressing a bit more firmly against his as she did so, all rational thought seemed to pour out of his ears. Their mouths hovered close for a moment, and just as he was about to...

"Congratulations on completing the final trial, Candidate! You will now be escorted to the auditorium for the ceremony," a deep voice boomed behind them. Four Rulazians, obviously dressed in their finest, stood obediently in the open door behind them waiting for them to comply.

"Really?!" the Doctor groaned loudly, his mouth mere centimeters from Rose's. Letting his head fall back in exasperation he bellowed, "Now?! Honestly… you lot have the _worst_ timing!" he whined, reluctantly pulling back from their embrace.

He was very aware how serious their predicament was. The first trial was over and they were about to discover who lived and who died. Still… he had been about to snog Rose Tyler. Interrupting his first meaningful snog with Rose Tyler… it was wrong. Rose's giggles filled the air after his frustrated outburst, though, and the sound of her happy laugh made his hearts literally sing despite his disgust with the situation.

"We apologize, Candidate," the Rulazian in front said with a deep bow, "... however you're needed in the auditorium," he explained.

Sighing, the Doctor pulled back from Rose but encircled her smaller hand in his. Taking a cleansing breath, he announced, "Right. Lead the way, then, Jeeves!"

The Rulazian looked a bit perplexed with his reply but said nothing as the Doctor and Rose slipped by him and out into the hall.


End file.
